Well, I wonder if it's some sort of dwarf bamboo.

For the sake of the real experts (which I am not), can you tell us where the photograph was taken?

And if you have access to the plants, can you photograph one from the side rather than from above? It's always helpful to see stems, and how the leaves join the stems.

This post was edited by missingtheobvious on Tue, Sep 30, 14 at 0:05

This is the same plant (the one at the bottom of the photo) taken from more of a distance.
I found the plant at Ping Tom Park, a park in Chinatown in Chicago.
There was no plant information on the Ping Tom Park websites.

My Chinese roommate said they look similar to Zongye (rice dumpling leaves) but they seem to small to be that.

So quite possibly a Chinese plant.

[I never knew that park had a name, but I've seen it from one of the El trains. (Google Maps says you can rent kayaks.) And I remember before it was a park, maybe 15 or 20 years ago, I attended a meeting at the Chicago Public Library branch in Chinatown, where they had a model of the park-that-was-to-come, and it seemed extremely unlikely it would ever become reality. Hello from a former Illinoisan! Small world, isn't it?]

This post was edited by missingtheobvious on Tue, Sep 30, 14 at 2:31

As best I can determine, dumplings are wrapped in bamboo leaves, which are sold dried.

Could be Sasa veitchii. Do the leaf edges turn white in late Fall (making it appear variegated)? At least check in the genus Sasa.

This post was edited by dave_in_nova on Tue, Sep 30, 14 at 7:46