Bamboo with long internodes: Schizostachyum grande (?)

[asnor69]

Dear sir,

I have found a specie of bamboo that have long distance between nodes. The distance can go up to over 2 meters.

http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/643/thumbs/MVC-006S.jpg See photo (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=2225&cat=500&ppuser=1331) http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/643/thumbs/MVC-005S.jpg See photo (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=2224&cat=500&ppuser=1331)

Bamboo with long distance between nodes. Length between nodes can reach up to 2 meters. Also used for blowpipes by the indigeneous people of Malaysia. Known as SEMALING bamboo in Malaysia. Unknown Scientific name.

[Mark Meckes]

Hi Asnor69,
Thanks very much for showing these pics.

Could this bamboo be a Schizostachyum species?
Is SEMALING Bulah semeliang? Buloh semeliang -> Schizostachyum grande

See following ...

From the MULTILINGUAL MULTISCRIPT PLANT NAME DATABASE ...

Sorting MALAY & INDONESIAN names (http://www.plantnames.unimelb.edu.au/Sorting/Bamboos_Malay_index.html)

Schizostachyum grande Ridley (PROSEA)

ENGLISH : Malaysian weed-bamboo.

MALAY : Buloh semeliang, Buloh seminyeh, Buluh lemeng (Sumatra).

THAI : Pai marieng.

There are a number of Schizostachyum species ...
I see on the above list that Schizostachyum iraten has the English common name of Bali blowpipe bamboo.
See list of Schizostachyum species (http://www.plantnames.unimelb.edu.au/Sorting/Schizostachyum.html) at the MULTILINGUAL MULTISCRIPT PLANT NAME DATABASE.

From other reference info I'm looking at, it appears a number of species of this Genus have long internodes.

~ Mark

[asnor69]

Dear Mark,

I believe it is of the same species group. It is called Buluh semeling in Malaysia. Commonly used in making blowpipes by the indigeneous people. Semeliang in Minangkabau (a sub race of the Malay race) which mainly were immigrants from Sumatera in my state, means long shaft. There are a few types of these bamboo (Buluh in Malaysia language). Some of them differ in wall thickness and diameters. Usually grows in places with high altitudes and thick rainforests. Maybe grow that long due to competition for sunlight.Tend to have small number of culms per grove. There are few internodes per culm. Most of the times will not exceed 10 internodes.

Coming soon - Large Bamboo culms (diameters more than 15") with very short internodes.

[Mark Meckes]

Asnor69,
A new category at Bamboo Flora has been made for the Genus ...
SCHIZOSTACHYUM > Schizostachyum grande (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showgallery.php?cat=643).

(Edit: An additional category has been made for Schizostachyum sp?, for uploading or moving pics to, until verification.

Your pics are the first in this category, and thank you again for beginning a first hand discussion about this Genus of bamboo.

What is the variation of wall thickness of this bamboo?

Schizostachyum has been discussed in the Bamboo Music Making Forum for use in making bansuri flutes, which require long internode, thin-walled bamboo.
Currently no one who has been looking for this type of long internode bamboo have verified a source in the USA.

Only a few species of Schizostachyum plants are available commercially, and in very limited supplies.
Due to it's sensitivity to cold and frost, (ABS list shows minimum temperature at 2 C / 35 F), there are few places in the US where this can be successfully cultivated, except as an ornamental potted plant.

~ Mark

[asnor69]

Dear Mark,

The variance that I have seen are in diameters and wall thickness. I have not paid much attention on the branches per node, rhizomes, leaves, flowering etc. I have used the long internode bamboo similar to the one in the photo but with thicker walls +/- 7mm for fish catching apparatus. So far, I have not seen them grow in cleared area. One of my workers have tried to plant these in his backyard, But the internodal length does not reach 1 meter. It is longer than any other species, but not as long as when it grows in the wild. One thing for sure, the bamboo grows in high altittude places and a little distance from water.

[Mark Meckes]

Very interesting.
A common practice of propagating many types of shade plants is to grow them in more sunlight then their natural habitat, which makes the plant shorter, bushier and they produce more basal sprouts and side branches - which provides a more sellable plant and provides faster reproduction.

It may well be the case that numerous bamboo species that are being commercially propagated and then planted under quite different conditions may lose their resemblance to how they are found growing in the wild.

Personally, I find wild, overgrown, untouched groves are much more interesting to observe and study, (though sometimes harder to photograph) then manicured groves.
I think this is because new, older, dying and decomposing culms are all an integral part of the cycle of bamboo, and tell a greater story.

Please do take your camera on your travels and enlighten us with pics of bamboos, wild or cultivated, of your region.

~ Mark

[BODbamboo]

Blast from the Past, I know but i am interested in long internodal bamboos.

Could this not be S. iraten or jaculans or even hantu?

Could you tell me where exactly this clump is as I'd like to look at it?

Ash