P.nigra 'Henon' and P. atrovaginata and P. dulcis are your best bets. Dulcis is sweet enough to eat raw and is the fastest to get good sized shoots/culms - 3 or 4 years faster than anything else that will grow in this area!! Moso is tough to make it happy - we have some 4" diameter culms 50-60 feet tall in one grove. The dulcis, henon and atro are all pretty easy to grow and fast to spread! The above refers to zone 7 - South Riding, Va. (next to Chantilly, Va.) One BIG note - 98% of bamboos like good drainage, and water forms the best barrier! Best to plant on hillside in best quality soil. N. Va. soils are not generally the best unless amended. PS Anyone have any jujube (Ziziphus) of named variety ( not from seed or sucker shoots). Will trade for any sort of bamboo or many other plants from hundreds of cacti/agaves/yuccas/sempervivums, and all sorts of trees, etc.

As long as all parts of the plant are visible, I don't mind the weeds. Those usually provide a sense of scale, since plant size is often omitted from the original description.

My guess is Haworthia Tortuosa. Not a Reinwardtii because those leaves form almost in a rod shape, does not fan out at all.

I bet this picture is from some nursery in China or SE Asia. I have seen pictures like this of ginseng ficus and other bonsai plants grown in large scale in a single style.