bamboo

1709 Lawson New Voyage 101 NC, SC,The Small Bamboo is . . a certain Vine, . . growing in low Land. 1858 (1859) Walter Seyton 78 eVA, Sam stepped down into the meadow to get some scarlet bamboo-berries, as he recollected Mrs. Seyton had appeared much pleased at his bringing her some on one occasion, and had observed they were extremely rare. 1871 in 1989 Grierson Colonel’s Lady 53 OK, I got some of the handsomest scarlet berries . . about as large as some of the wild grapes . . , also some black berries which Edie thought were grapes. As we were passing along the road, an old colored woman told me they are called bamboo berries. 1901 Mohr Plant Life AL 446, Smilax laurifolia . . Bay-Leaf Bamboo. 1927 Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. Proc. 38.230 Okefenokee GA, Smilax laurifolia ‘Black bamboo’ . . Smilax Walteri ‘Red bamboo’. 1937 in 1979 Amer. Slave Suppl. 2 3.548 TX (as of c1865) [Black], Sometime’ us cook bamboo berries for peas. 1937 Thornborough Gt. Smoky Mts. 74, Here are women . . ; weaving baskets from the bamboo found along the streams. 1950 Gray–Fernald Manual of Botany 450, S[milax] laurifolia . . “Bamboo”. 1966 Cumberland Sun. Times (MD) 3 Apr 39/3 seGA, Two years ago bamboo berries, one of the “delicacies” on which bears fed, were scarce and no less than seven of the big, wild animals wandered into the town of Folkston. 2004 Austin FL Ethnobotany 631, For obscure reasons, these climbers [=Smilax spp] are also called wild bamboo (Florida) or bamboo [vine] (Florida, Carolinas).