I have decided to start a few species of Fargesia from seed. I knew that bamboo taxonomy could be confusing, but it seems that Fargesia in particular is a debated genus. Ive searched for some info on the species I have ordered and have learned a few things about them, and I was wondering if I could get some help solidifying the information I have found.

Fargesia fungosa (chocolate bamboo) - There was decent information about this species. Seems only hardy to about -18C. Probably wont survive here. The information is pretty solid in regards to this one.

Fargesia yunnanensis - I could barley find anything on this one. When I did, it all seemed to be copy and pasted from a single source. Kew gardens website had some info, but was vague. The only decent info I could find, stated that this bamboo lives in alpine regions of south west china, down to mountain sub tropical areas. I can find the hight, but the information regarding hardiness is obscure, and does not agree with itself. Ive found a range of -15C down to -28C, which is too vague for me. I dont mind surprises and testing things, but some information would be nice.

Fargesia spathacea - It was mentioned that F spathacea has been confused with F nitida. Even now it is still under the common name "fountain bamboo". It has also been mistaken for F Murielae ( to my reading, Nitida was confused with Murelae as well), as well as F Dracocephala ( the "proper" name for F rufa, which is supposedly now"F dracocephala "rufa". "rufa", being a variation). The EBS (European Bamboo Society), states, that most, if not all plants formally labeled F. spathacea, are in fact a variation on F. nitida.

That being said, I also found a source that states there is actually a species named F spathacea. I couldnt find to much on the actual species, only that the name has been changed from Semiarundinaria, to Borinda, to Thalmnocalamus to Fargesia, and back to one of the former, and now Fargesia again. After all that, it turns out it was F nitida after all these years. There is almost nothing in regards to the species Fargesia spathacea. This taxonomy stuff is crazy in regards to bamboo lol.

The seller on ebay, has 4 different pictures, of what I think are 2 or 3 different bamboo. The one in the main picture definitely is not the same as the other bamboo shown. So, what exactly am I getting? From what I can tell, it can either be Fargesia nitida, dracocephala, muielae, or spathacea. All should have a decent chance in my climate, all are gorgeous, and I dont have any, except a Fargesia Dracocephala "rufa" clone. I wouldnt mind some "real" dracocephalla, and I like my odds of getting something different.

I think nitida and murielae are currently flowering, so seeds are plentiful. The others I don't know about -- haven't heard of them flowering. Unless the ebay seller is reputable, you really don't know what you're getting.

It's been said here that bamboo seeds lose viability pretty quickly, so if these seeds are more than a couple of months old you may not get any to germinate.

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Alan.
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I have two Fargesia fungosa seedlings. It's actually not fargesia, it's Borinda genus. It's stunningly beautiful. One of them is bushy with culms over 0.5 cm thick, the other almost died this summer, but is now showing some growth from few culms that didn't die during first severe frost.

It's a pain to grow, at least as 9 month old seedling, kept in pot. Temperature was below freezing for 4 days or so, around 0C and up to -3C. When the -3degrees have hit it, almost all branches got dry, shoots that were two weeks old all died.I've taken it inside (unheated stairway) during the coldest nights and by then weather changed and it got to around +15C during the sunny day. It then decided to branch out, and now it's growing branches on almost all older shoots, on most of branches, thick or thin, if I could get it somewhere with enough light, I'm sure it could get extremely beautiful, but with all the fog and south-western window it's branches and leaves are kind of pale. If I'd kept it outside it would be killed by now for sure.

Extremely beautiful bamboo, but I think it might be suitable for zone 8 and not zone 7 I live in. Well, it might change when it gets a bit older and more hardy. During first few frosts it looked totally OK and all the ice that formed on it's leaves, covered with millions of tiny hairs - beautiful!

Jesse- Found this on F. murieale and F. spatheca from an article on F. spatheca:

"( IV) Co l d - t emp e r a t e coni ferous and mixed forest: Abies
fargesii predominates in the upper mountains from 2 500 m
e x t e n d i n g to t h e summit of 3 100 m, forming taiga forest (Li
et al. 1995). Two b amb o o species, Fargesia spathacea and
Fargesia murielae dominate the u n d e r s t o r e y of A. fargesii
respect ively below and upper 2 600 m. F. spathacea t e n d s
to occur at dry slopes, while F. murielae prefers t h e moist
valleys. Ground c o v e r of Fargesia spathacea wa s b e twe e n
7 0%- 9 0%, wi th a moderate densi ty of a b o u t 70 culms m 2. "

From Journal o f Forestry Research, 13 (3): 171-176 (2002).

Alan_L - I have read that murielae and nitida have been flowering since 2002? There seems to be quite a few places selling F yunnanensis seeds right now, regardless of the lack of specie information. I have seen F fungosa available a few times on various sites, but I have never even heard of F spathacea before, until seeing the auction.

I do agree that its a gamble getting it from ebay. But all signs point to something that i would at least find desirable. 2 bucks for 50 seeds? I cant pass the chance (albeit slim) of getting the species of Fargesia spathacea.

I am also aware of the importance of fresh seed, but that is true for many things. IT also helps if they are properly stored. Again, Ill have to hope for the best!

Tarzanus - That fits with the info I have read about fungosa. I may or may not try it in the ground, but its more then likely going to be donated to the botanical conservatory in town, and to a few other places. I know someone in nova scotia that would me interested in trying it. If i remember, bamboo seedlings take a bit to get good hardiness.

Paul - That may also suggest that spathacea is a variation of murielae correct?

This article I found, suggests that spathacea is just a variation of nitida..

http://bamboo-identification.co.uk/html ... amboo.html

Its an article about identifying F "rufa", but makes references to f spathacea, murielae and nitida.


"The Chinese collectors named this bamboo Fargesia spathacea, a name once wrongly assigned to Fargesia murieliae and later to Fargesia nitida, and this time too that name was wrong......"

as well as this

http://members.chello.nl/~p.meeuws/bb/a ... stap01.pdf

Too much to quote, bit it also suggests that there was/is major confusion with the name F spathacea.

IT is interesting to note in your quote, that one prefers drier and one prefers wetter soils...

Thanks again

That second one is a good read. The gentlemen also gets it right by stating:

"I’m really sorry about this but it looks as though it will have to be goodbye nitida and hello spathacea. This time, however, we hope to be giving the name to the right bamboo, the Fountain Bamboo rather than the Umbrella Bamboo, and we will be putting it into the right genus, Fargesia instead of Thamnocalamus."

Because the type species of Fargesia is F. spatheca, and if F. nitida is the same thing, it's name must revert to F. spatheca (perhaps as a ssp., or var. thereof). This is probably unfortunate news for horticulture, but, because we're dealing with a type species, it's not likely that a case can be made to retain a name in common usage!


Oh, and on more important terms, all the Fargesia seed I started have sprouted within 2 weeks (probably about 70%). Just be sure to sterilize the seeds briefly before you sow!

For me, figuring out what I am growing is important. What I got from the second article, was that the seeds of "Spatheca" I bought, are probably "nitida". That is fine, but who knows what ill get?

That is good to know about the germination time for you. Did you use any additional heat? Also, how did you sterilize the seeds? Ive read of a few ways, but so far nothing about how do to so, with bamboo seeds.

Jesse, To sterilize I soaked the seeds in water for 12 hours, then rinsed with 10% bleach (1 part household bleach to 9 parts water) then rinsed again with dH2O. Then I spread the seeds on top of pre-sterilized soil, and lightly covered them with soil...

After trying many mediums(perlite, vermiculate, paper towel, peat moss, nothing, seed starter soil) with tree peony seeds which are harder to germinate than bamboo seeds, I have found that the only thing that has held up without a massive outbreak of mold is the vermiculate. I also looked online to find that it has anti bacterial, ant fungi properties. It's pretty amazing how I took moldy seeds, put them in the vermiculate to find that they eventually lose the mold which is perhaps the biggest problem in seed germination. Another thing I've found is that whenever I germinate seeds out in garden beds there seems to never be mold problems.

I'm also definitely not going too heavy on the water either as I only put around a tablespoon of water per plastic bag which hardly ensures that the mediums never get damp, but I'm very impressed with the results from vermiculate. The only problem with fargesia seeds is that vermiculate is a similar color to the tiny seeds which may make it hard to locate the seeds until they root. It seems to work well with getting rid of the mold, but bamboo seeds typically take a week to germinate so the paper towel method may be a more feasible method.

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Paul - Perfect. I should probably sterilize all my seeds... Thanks again

Steve - Thats good to know too. I think ill sow them on sterilized soil, and put a light layer of vermiculite on top. Ill have to throw some in some baggies that are cold stratifying too!!

Have had fairly good results germinating Fargesias, of about six different species without cold treatment. Have used small 2"pots in ziplock bags with media sterilized by pouring boiling water over just prior to planting. And I sowed on the surface without covering, so I could see them germinate. Can also see if any seeds rot so they can be removed before they affect the rest of the batch.... Occasionally I have to get out my bamboo skewers to make hole for the root of the germinating seedling to be poked down into the media. But in future I may try with just paper towels and cut the paper towel in a little square around each seed once it sprouts-- in order to put it into a pot...Hope that helps, even though this is two years later!

Forgot one thing--I soaked them in a ten percent household bleach solution on the dry seeds for twenty minutes, and that seemed to help get better germination before fungi take hold, especially on some older (<1yr) Dendrocalamus seeds. Hope that helps....

UPDATE:

I have about 5, tiny Fargesia yunannensis plants growing now, as well as 2 Borinda fungosa plants, that germinated yesterday.

I also just received my Fargesia "spathacea" (quotations because "spathacea" seems to be a misnamed Nitida or maureilae most of the time). 95% of them sunk last night during the soak, and im going to plant them today. Wish me luck on those guys!!

Here's a 2 month old fargesia murielae from seed and I'm finding that they tend to have a much slower growth rate than any of the phyllostachys seedlings I've grown with their tiny culms. At this rate, it will take at least an entire growing season on top of this winter to fill out a 1 gallon pot at best unless they have a sudden spurt of growth when it gets warmer.

_________________
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http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/

Steve:

Fargesia seedlings are SLOW, I have some F. nitida seedlings going through their second winter and they are just now getting to 1 gallon size... Maybe by the time they flower again they will reach 5 gallon size!

Jesse- F. spatheca is the accepted name. F. nitida is not valid since F. spateca was named first AND is the type for the genus (apparently).