Bamboo stands are low in diversity no doubt
Bob.
Great soil builder. They even seem to prosper in their own litter too.
The canes generally have a life span of 6 to 9 years.
Prime wood quality at 5 to 6 years, growers must mark age of each cane to know when to harvest at 5 years.
Slow to rot so the canes can stand dead for several years unless ground moisture is high and the base rots fast.
Even then the cane cane stand leaning for years as you suspected.
A new grove is at is most beauty when matured to full size/diameter in say 5 years but before the canes start dying.
Unless one maintains the grove by removing the old canes.
The running bamboo is my specialty. It blooms(puts out seed) every 30 to 60 to 120 years.
When this happens the mature canes all die all over the world for that given variety.
Of course the canes shoot to full height in 30 days(or 60 days in some larger varieties).
Wind freeze during a frost is the easiest way to freeze the leaves off of the canes and leave a naked mess.
A wind break like a thick forest on the NE side works best here(prevailing NW winter winds)
Running bamboo always runs to the south because the sun heats the ground on the south side, so always plant to the north and allow 5 years for it to grow to full diameter in the direction you want to have a groove of all full size canes. Then kill the small canes to the north to prevent their propagation.
Running bamboo varies greatly in wood quality, ability to not lean, flavor of shoots, root growth rates, etc.
My favorite large ones are Henon, Bory, Vivax, Viridis(Robert Young/Houzou). Robert Young is #1. Beautiful yellow canes, green stripes, super hard wood and never leans. It will invert to a faster growing green cane with yellow stripes occasionally. Kill them to prevent further propagation.
Big bamboo has deeper running thicker root runners, smaller has shallower smaller diameter root systems.
In Florida I grow Bambusa varities. A clumper.
They are all great to cook with. Sweet smoking wood. Or cooking rice dishes inside the larger canes.
Bamboo spreading into a neighbor's yard is an act of nature and the owner can not be held liable. In Georgia anyway.
Perhaps the fastest grower of biomass in the SE US is Rubromarginata
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllostachys_rubromarginata