Page 50 - Растения Сахалинской области в легендах и мифах

Sasa kurilensis

(Sasa kurilensis)

Saza or Kuril bamboo is always green, always alive, one of the most cold-
resistant types of bamboo. Its stems reach heights from 30 to 250 cm, up to 7 mm
in diameter. Leaves ovate-lanceolate or ovate-pointed, up to 13 cm long, 2.5–5 cm
wide, green above, glabrous; a little paler below with a protruding median vein.
Bamboo rhizomes are leptomorphic. They are long and thin, monopodial, have
hollow internodes, the length of which is much greater than their width.
In addition to Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, the species range covers the islands
of Japan: Hokkaido and Honshu, the Korean peninsula. Grows on mountain slopes,
forming continuous bamboo thickets.

Once upon a time the sea and the sky got in an argument, trying to decide
who was more powerful and stronger. Trying to assert its dominance, the
sea splashed the sky with sea foam. In response, the sky threw rocks and dirt
into the sea. The rocks formed the islands, and one of them bore a strange

plant with many leaves but no branches. This was the first bamboo in the
world. Time passed by, and the giant bird sat on the bamboo, pecking at
its first knot, and the knot burst open. releasing the man. The bird pecked
through the second knot, and the woman stepped out of it. And they were the
first people on Earth.

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