ID? Phyllostachys sp. #3 (dulcis?)

[ShmuBamboo]

Third type to ID.
Similar to 'vivax' but older culms have purple stem color about 30 ft. high. New stems are green. Similar leaf as the 'vivax' I supposedly have, with hairs at the base of the leaves. Has grooved stem. Timber type as mother plant that I got it from had 3 inch culms and purple color stems.

Photo: This one is in a pot and about a year since potted up, has some new shoots now.

[ShmuBamboo]

OK, this guy has 2 new fat shoots (about 3/4 of an inch in diameter). Here is a closeup of a shooting tip and a leaf with the frills at the base.

[Mark Meckes]

hmmm this could be a longstanding ID quest due to it's immature size and as we get more pics.

However you mentioned ...
- It had 3" diameter culms
- New culms green
- The shoot sheath has auricles with oral setae
- The sheath surface may have scattered speckled spots

... So my first guess is ... Phyllostachys dulcis (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showgallery.php?cat=591) (pics at gallery Bamboo Flora)

(Disregard the blotches on the culm surface of the Georgia bamboo - an affect caused by the local environment)

I have some better pics of this species which I'll upload in a couple days ...

Mark

[ShmuBamboo]

Well, it is not that immature. I have it in a 15 gallon pot (ready to be potted up again when the shoots are set) and I had a good size clump of roots with it. Two shoots so far this year, pretty good size. It had a 3 inch diameter shoot when I got it (should have shot a photo of it them). Big purple shoot with frilly zig-zag things sticking out the top. I cut it to save the roots. The mother plant was 30 ft high with deep purple culms. I only got it because the guy that had dibbs on the monster mother plant (a dozen or so culms in a 5'x5' area) had left to get more tools to dig it out. The girlfriend and I had managed to get a row of the giant arrow out of the ground. Six or so other people had given up on those breaking shovels and swearing a lot, we had brought a pair of Wolverene shovels that take a beating. The owner was so impressed with our efforts that he led us to the giant purple boo and showed us a side shoot root growth with a fat one foot high shoot and said, "take it!" so we did... (snicker snicker). Later he let us have a few clumps of the 'vivax' too. That was a good day of boo hunting. I left my number in case the guy digging out the giant purple clump failed... but I never got a call. The pros were on to that place by then. It is amazing really, what people want to get rid of sometimes. One man's garbage, another's gold. My girlfriend goes ga-ga over purple.

[Mark Meckes]

My definition for "maturity" has more to do with culm sheath identification and other characteristics in relation to the culm diameter and it's potentially maximum diameter of a matured planting.
For example, large growing bamboo species don't really begin to show their mature characteristics till culms begin to reach at least an inch or so in diameter.

This is why it's important to also have pics of of smaller diameter juvenile plantings in order to culmpare differences in characteristics, as many unknown ID quests may begin as juvenile plantings.

I've just uploaded some more Phyllostachys dulcis pics (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showgallery.php?cat=591&ppuser=29) taken at Kinder Chambers collection at Buckholts (Central Texas) in April '07.
Temperate boo shoot season is earlier here, and copious spring rains finally pushed this dulcis up another notch, to an inch+ in diameter for some culms.

You mentioned purple boo ...
Sometimes this coloration is evident on bamboo for various reasons ...
- Some bamboo sheaths produce a purple tinge when adequate rains arrive during shoot season.
- Sometimes early shoots have more purple tinges initially.
- Sometimes cool weather and/or sun exposure causes this color to be more pronounced on sheaths.
- Some bamboo species culms will develop a purple coloration, either at a young tender age, or as they mature, when exposed to direct sunlight.

Mark

[ShmuBamboo]

Well, the mature 30 ft. or so culms of the mother plant were strikingly purple. Deep purple, as seen in the new growth on the new cane sheaths now. I thought it was a giant black then. But the leaves are way too long to be a black (almost as long as arrow, similar shape). The huge shoot that I cut had some bizzare attributes, for sure.

Here is a photo of the first shoot which is now 6 ft., branching out. The color purple here is pretty much the same as the culms and sheaths on the larger/mother plant that it came from.

[Mark Meckes]

Of the around 100 species/cultivars of the genus Phyllostachys, there's a relatively smaller percentage which will attain 3" in diameter.
Sometimes species with an average max diameter of 2" can grow larger in freakishly ideal conditions.
However, a 3" diameter culm enables the use of the process of eliminating a number of smaller growing species from the "guess list" of potential candidates.

If you can remeasure the old stump for culmfirmation, that would help. Though culm stumps are sometime larger than the average culm diameter, which is usually measured higher up for statistical purposes.

While still clinging to the possibility that it may be P. dulcis, with the new shoots purple-ating under your growing conditions, I culmcede that there are still some Phyllostachys species I have not yet personally become acquainted with. (Many lifetimes of learning still required to become a bamboo know-it-all ;) )

There's a pretty purpley one called Phyllostachys violascens (in the US), which I have not seen.
Though it only grows to 2" max diameter, it can have a decidedly purple overtone at a young age.
It can later develop stripes on the culms which would certainly make for easy ID, or elimination as a candidate.

http://www.bambus-lexikon.de/phyllostachys-praecox-violascens.html

Mark

[ShmuBamboo]

Well, hard to say what ideal is. Eugene is phenominal for growing a lot of plants. Clematis, iris, tulips, conifers, cain berries, blueberries, garlic, corn, wheat, grasses. Lost of commercial ag in the Willamette Valley. Cool falls and springs, warm to hot summers, cool to cold winters. Not much snow in winter, ground rarely freezes (maybe 3 inches at most). Weather is highly variable here; no two years are the same. We do have dryer summer months though from June through October. Most lf the heavy rain is from November through February. Lows here tend to be in the mid teens. Highs in the low 100s.

As for the mother plant, I cannot revisit her as she was dragged off when we got the clump. I am sure it had at least 2.5 inch diameter culms. Not 5-6 inch monsters, but still impressive timber. This potted leafy part of the plant is pretty small in a 4 gallon tub, and it is already putting up two more 5/8 inch shoots. Green, with some bronze and spotting. I am already seeing some purple-bronze hughs on the otherwise green stems of the other first shoot that is leafing out now. It look to be sun activated coloration. Bronze-purple above the culm sheath lines at the top of the nodes. This 'small' shoot is already over 6 ft high, growing from an otherwise small boo in a 4 gallon tub.

As for plant (and especially boo) expertice, if you knew it all, would you not just be bored with them? ;) And they are just grasses, so we are just managing pastures, really. Big pasture plants... Texas size. Sheep love 'em.

[Mark Meckes]

A "mountain man" at heart, I suffer from the sizzling and sweltering Texas summers which is already in full swing. :(
Never been to the PNW but sounds like my kinda weather!

I believe that cooler weather and adequate rain during shoot emergence season can also enhance the purple coloration on sheaths and new shoots.

This pics shows some purple tinges on the new branch sheaths of this Phyllostachys dulcis:
http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/591/medium/PdulcChBTX070409-6577.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=4192) View large (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=4192&size=big)

Shoot sheaths also exhibit lightly scattered speckled spots and have auricles with frilly filamentous oral setae.
P. dulcis can produce culms nearing 3" (7+cm) in diameter.
Larger culms have prominent node ridges, and sometimes the lower ones bulge out more on the outward side, though this characteristic is not very noticeable on small diameter culms.

As for plant (and especially boo) expertice, if you knew it all, would you not just be bored with them? ;)

Ah well, there's knowledge, and then there's wisdom, and soooo much more to learn about the practical and hands-on applications and uses of this marvelous group of plants.

Mark

[ShmuBamboo]

Ah well, I am just a horticulturalist at heart. I have the dirt gene. Many plant interests: garlic (I grow 35 types here), cane berries (11 types, not including 3 wild types), blueberries (10 types), orchids (cymbidiums), grapes (new pinot noir vineyard just finished planting), fruit trees (too many to list, Nick Botner lives near here and he has over 2,000 types of apples!), lavenders (15 types, also deer proof), and... er, oh yah, bamboo (12 types and counting). I was also big into roses when I lived in California. I have a few favorite roses planted here.

Weather here is cool, but it rains A LOT. I measure rainfall here in feet, not inches. This time of year is nice and warm/sunny. Got into the 90's for a while, but now back into the 80s for a high, 50's low. Definately not Texas weather. Oh, yah, I am drifting... back to the boo. Let me see how the new baby shoots are doing today and snap a few photos of this beastie.

[ShmuBamboo]

OK, some close-ups of the first leafing shoot of the mystery boo #3 from today. This one is about 1/2 inch in diameter at the base. Note in the first photo the purple-brozing of the otherwise green stem below the node, with the shade line where the sheath was. The sheaths are purple, but so are the stems that have been exposed to sunlight. Next is a close-up of a node, lower down on the plant. Then there is a shot of the mottled shoot of one of the other 2 shoots that are coming up, larger than the first one. It is about a foot and a half high today.

[Mark Meckes]

Excellent pics ShmuBamboo!
Yep, in the first pic, the purple color on the exposed portion of the new culm appears to be sun induced.
If it didn't have auricles (ear-like appendages) with oral setae (eyelashes) on the upper part of the sheath I might be guessing it as ...

Phyllostachys arcana
http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/610/thumbs/ParcE5BGA930603-4.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=1929)
However it's not, because this species grows to less than 1 1/2" in diameter, with culm sheaths lacking auricles and oral setae.

The otherwise pale, light green undertone, and speckles on the fresh sheath has me culmvinced it is Phyllostachys dulcis - Sweetshoot Bamboo

Yummy :)

Mark

[sasa fool]

Mark that is a pretty large node in his middle picture, would you find that consistent with an immature Dulcis? I've not noticed mine being so exaggerated on the Dulcis. I agree that the purple has to be ignored for the ID, it is likely environmental as you suggest.

[Mark Meckes]

Hi sasa,
The pronounced node is pretty much typical for dulcis, often bulging more on the outward side of the culm.
But this trait becomes much more obvious when the culms become larger in diameter.

1"+ Phyllostachys dulcis culm node: - Central Texas
http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/591/medium/PdulcChBTX070409-6587.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=4191) View large (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=4191&size=big)

2"+ Phyllostachys dulcis culm node: - Central Georgia
http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/591/medium/PdulcisB3BGA050216-603.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=1489) View large (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=1489&size=big)

I had a small stand of Phyllostachys dulcis in NE Pennsylvania.
It would get zapped annually from below 0F winters.
However I did put some of these immature culms to good use: :)

Sweet Shoot quill tip pen
http://www.bamboocraft.net/gallery/data/3052/medium/1Mvc-179f.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=661) View large (http://www.bamboocraft.net/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=661&size=big)

Mark

[sasa fool]

I see, its just that particular picture seems to really exaggerate the node, I just would not have described my Dulcis as having the large nodes. My Dulcis here put up a 1.25 inch diameter culm in year 3 and in year 4 a few more along the lines of 1 to 1.25. It suffered nearly total leafburn, some culm kill but mostly leafed back out in y4 at around -5F which occured during a 15 day deep freeze with highs below +32F and lows mostly in the range of +12 to 2 subzero nights - a real deep freeze. This leads me to guess Dulcis are leaf hardy to the -5 or bit beyond.

[Mark Meckes]

This leads me to guess Dulcis are leaf hardy to the -5 or bit beyond.

Possibly ...
There were some 'mild' years that bottom branches re-leafed if they were protected over the winter by a decent snow cover.
You're in a slightly warmer climate than where I was.
I didn't mention another factor - my location was at near 2000ft elevation.
Folks living at lower elevations 20 miles away fared much better with their bamboos than I did.
Also another hardiness factor is the duration of minimum temperature, and of course, wind chill, and the duration of those blasted freezing artic winds.

Brrrrr! ... just thinking about it makes me glad to be living in Texas ... though these hot dry summers can have similar dessicating effects, but called dehydration. :(

Mark

[Mark Meckes]

I just would not have described my Dulcis as having the large nodes.
I guess if viewed in proportion to internode diameter then dulcis nodes are spindly culmpared to this little beauty: ;)

Qiongzhuea tumidissinoda
http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/646/medium/QtumGBGA050222-476.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=2236)

Mark

[ShmuBamboo]

Some new photos of this unknown type boo with this year's shoots (many of them, this guy is getting big and fast!)