The other day, outside a mall in Jerusalem, I spotted a plant with fine-textured, weepy foliage and thought it must be some kind of bamboo.

It turned out not to be a true bamboo, but is commonly referred to as miniature or panda baby bamboo (Pogonatherum paniceum) due to the similarity of its leaves to those that grow on true bamboo. Both true bamboo and panda baby bamboo are in the grass family. True bamboo is the staff of life for panda bears. Bamboo is nutrient-poor and pandas devote 12 hours of each day to eating it. Curiously enough, pandas have the digestive system of a carnivore.

Because their diet is out of sync with their digestive physiology, even after eating up to 80 pounds of bamboo a day, they lack energy, do not interact much with other animals, and live a sedentary exist

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