The “Lucky Bamboo”, a common office decoration often marketed as a Chinese good luck symbol, is not really bamboo, it belongs to the same family as the lily.
Other common names for this plant include Sander’s dracaena, ribbon dracaena, curly bamboo, friendship bamboo, Chinese water bamboo, Goddess of Mercy’s plant, Belgian evergreen, ribbon plant, etc. Although the word ‘bamboo’ occurs in several of this plant’s common names, this plant is of an entirely different taxonomic order from true bamboos.
Dracaena sanderiana, also known as Dracaena braunii or the ‘Lucky Bamboo’ is named after the German–English gardener Henry Frederick Conrad Sander (1847–1920). It is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae.
Lucky bamboo is an attractive, popular plant that could be grown indoors. In certain parts of India, the plant has become the most popular indoor plant and is usually imported from China and Taiwan.
According to the principles of feng shui and Vastu Shastra, this plant considered as auspicious could bring good luck. Some believe that by keeping the lucky bamboo plant inside houses and offices in decorative pots would bring them happiness and prosperity.
Though several this plant’s common names precede with the words ‘China’ or ‘Belgium’, the plant is native of the tropical rainforests of Africa and parts of Southeast Asia.