Cultivated in the Chinese and Japanese gardens for centuries, joined the European gardening in 1804 by William Kerr, who sent it to London from Canton, also known as Guǎngzhōu. Scientifically named after the romanization of his name in Japanese, nan-ten, its popular name, sacred bamboo, refers to the foliage of these plants, although the sacred bamboo presents a much more small scale. This quality gives you great value for its use in gardens, but mostly its original color behavior: its leaves change color depending on the season. Thus, in spring its leaves have an orange-red color that clears with the heat of summer and acquires a greenish touch. In autumn, the leaves are pink and bright red until tey reach their maximum intensity in winter to finish turning purple and red before its fall. Coinciding with its colorful red in winter, like the Poinsettia, the sacred bamboo is used at Christmas as decoration of altars of the houses and temples in cities like Shangai.