Bamboo imposter?... Arundo donax

[Snowbird]

well, i did not take a picture of it but i assume this is a common weed that one of you would know. I was all set to transplant a 2'x10' section of what i assumed would be p. aureosulcata 'yellow groove', as it is the most common if not only 10'+ bamboo in my area. i arrived and to my dismay saw a corn like plant that appeared to be growing on a rhizome system. it was 12' tall with no branches and had faint nodes where long leaves would grow out of. the stalk itself was thin walled and easily snapped between two fingers. the plant is perennial in my zone 6b and most of last years growth has topkilled from both drought and cold. this is the second time i have come across this plant and both times i was told by the property owner that it was bamboo.

anyone have an idea what's been posing for bamboo that resembles corn?


edit:

Arundo donax
this looks like it---
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/Arundo_donax_1.jpg/250px-Arundo_donax_1.jpg

[Mark Meckes]

Hi Seth, (posted while you found the answer :))
Would it perchance be Arundo donax (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showgallery.php?cat=572)?
This is a grass with bamboo-like culms but it is not a true bamboo.
Note that the leaves do not taper down to a petiole (stem) but are part of the sheath attached to the culm, which is not typical of bamboo.

There's a lot of this growing around Texas.
If the winter doesn't get below low teens F, culms survive the winter and grow side branches the following year, otherwise it gets zapped and sends up new growth the following spring.

This is the plant that reeds are made from, for various musical instruments.
I've read that 3 year old culms are used for this.
I grew it in the NE Pennsylvania mountains and it grew to 12' ft (3-4M) tall but rarely flowered - growing season was too short.
The canes were "pithy" up north - not as good as bamboo.
Here in Texas the material is more woody.

Must get some more pics of this plant in flower and examples of wild stands.

Mark

[Snowbird]

thanks mark, i believe that you're right. up here it looks pretty shabby and can be more of an eyesore. it does grow very fast and seems to be growing as a favored plant. i'm not sure i can see why people like it but maybe there's a better maintained planting somewhere that people are propagating from.

[Mark Meckes]

It can develop a haggard look here too after a hot dry summer, also especially as stands of it are rarely maintained and have a lot of dead growth inter-mixed.
Sometimes road crews with brush hog tractors mow it down and it gets a fresh makeover.

From what I can surmise, it produces very few seeds from the flower heads, but viable seeds will ocasionally settle in roadside ditches and start a new patch.

I got my Arundo donax ...
http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/572/thumbs/Adonax050810ATX-903.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=1295)

... from a piece of rhizome hitchiking in a root ball that was growing amongst some "real bamboo" that I dug out at a farmstead.
At first I decided to let it grow so that I'd have some material to experiment with.
But as you can see, it began to grow sideways due to growing in a somewhat shady place.
There's plenty growing wild on roadsides and I'd rather have the "real thing".
So the third year I cut back all new growth and by mid summer it was history.

There's a very attractive highly variegated form ...
Arundo donax 'Variegata'
http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/572/thumbs/AdonaxVgSkvTX050412-096.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=1378)

It is most outstanding in spring/early summer.
Here in Texas the white leaves turn mostly green by mid summer.

It is not as robust - doesn't get quite as large, and is not as cold hardy as the regular form.
I tried growing this variegated form several times in Zone 5-ish NE PA.
The leaves stay more variegated in cooler climates
However it would gradually diminish in size each year and eventually harsh sub-zero F winters would put an end to it.
It does okay in zone 6.

Mark

[Dean W.]

I have some of this myself a 5-gallon container of it plus some planted in the ground. I dont know why but, I keep watering it perhaps I should let it die or get the varigated variety.

Dean