A stand of bamboo presented themselves between temple and garden in Saiho-ji, a Buddhist temple garden in Kyoto, Japan. Downy green, blue, pale green, grey -- a chord of color.

Drawn in by the colors, noting a pattern, I was led to wonder -- many species or one, tones in succession?

Later, I read that bamboo is a grass, spreading by underground runners, trunks (culms) like single blades. Here roots of bamboo hold the eroding hillside. Colors tell culms' age: siblings, sprung from common roots; grove of grass, bamboo.