I looked through the Deam Collection of River-cane today. I found out many strange and interesting things. Among the things I found is evidence that the Hoosier strain Brad has had flowered in 1953. Now does anyone know the length of the flowering cycle for River-cane? I think it is on the order of 120 years, but don't know for sure.

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Southern Indiana. Theoretically the same climate as 'needmore' & 'Eastlandia'.
My Bamboo List.

"Take Dog apart. Disinfect. Reassemble."

It would be nice to set a time for it...but didn't another AG grove flower in 1920? If the Hoosier strain flowerd in 1953 then that means that the "possom-trot" is different! yeah!
I havent talked to Brad, but maybe the highway services of the cross-roads of america can help answer. -eastlandia

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Brian T. Lawrence
Southern Indiana (2002-2011)
Fort Myers Florida (2012)

In looking through the Deam Collection I found flowering samples taken from Gibson County in 1929 and flowering samples taken from Lawrence County in 1953. Those were the only two flowering samples I saw. I also noted that several of the samples seem to have smaller leaves than the others. In fact, samples from one county all had smaller leaves which leads me to believe this may be a trait of the AG there.

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Southern Indiana. Theoretically the same climate as 'needmore' & 'Eastlandia'.
My Bamboo List.

"Take Dog apart. Disinfect. Reassemble."

An additional data point, the flowering of the River-cane on Fox Island, near New Harmony, IN occurred in 1850. New Harmony is in Posey County. That gives us three data points. A check on the web is rather vague on the flowering cycle, usually listing 40-50 years.

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Southern Indiana. Theoretically the same climate as 'needmore' & 'Eastlandia'.
My Bamboo List.

"Take Dog apart. Disinfect. Reassemble."

triple brook farms says their a.g. has been flowering for a few years (although i'm guessing they haven't updated their page in a couple of years - it says they've been flowering for three years, then says cardinals were eating the seeds back in 2000, so i'd be interested in finding out the current status of these plants). i also read a recent news story on the net that said a.g. was flowering and botanists from all over the world were showing up to see it, since none of them had ever seen an a.g. flowering. i wish i had saved it, since i can't seem to find it now. i can't remember where that was happening, but i want to say it was oklahoma, since i was searching for mentions of wild a.g. groves near my home that i could go see.

Incredibly interesting post.

Thanks! This brings back good memories.
Iowa State has done a lot of work on AG since this discussion. I find it surprising how many local populations of A. gigantea exist within the southeastern US. It would be fun to look at detailed plant geography studies. After seeing many groves, I am still convinced that A.gigantea has multiple subspecies or habits or something. The leaves, culm height, diameter all seem to change in different locations. I've seen it 20 feet tall and 1.5 inches in diameter, and two counties later half that with small leaves and small culms. Sure, environmental conditions can alter a plant, but even after transplanting, they seem to keep the same unique style. I have "possum trot" "birdseye" and "paperweight" all next to one another in IN. They all grow differently.

It would be interesting to keep posted on the flowering of AG.

-southlandia

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Brian T. Lawrence
Southern Indiana (2002-2011)
Fort Myers Florida (2012)

Hi Brad - I couldn't resist mentioning this post, it seemed to important not to bring it back up. This bamboo, Canebreak, AG, is fascinating to me. I saw the mention of 'Micheaux' , I am hoping this is in 'The North American Sylva' which I have a 2 volume set of somewhere in the house (ca.1820?), where I can see an early hand-colored print of it. Do you think there are small stands of it still growing in NJ?
rich