Qui & Ma Hardiest Bamboos

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johnw
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Qui & Ma Hardiest Bamboos

Post by johnw »

Under Bashania fargesii in Meredith's book there is a line that has been haunting me for quite some time. He says on page 258 - 64 species were evauated for winter hardiness in Beijing "Of the 20 hardiest selections, 17 were phyllostachys. Bashania fargesii was one of the three that were not Phyllostachys, but still ranked on the top 20 for hardiness (Qui & Ma 1992)". It would be interesting to know which species the other two were and how the Phyllostachys species ranked from hardiest to least.

Apparently Qui & Ma wrote a 1992 article in the ABS Journal 9: 8-16. My Journals are in storage at the moment. Does anyone recall the top twenty? Slipped past my radar.

While it may get cold in Beijing natives tell me it doesn't stay cold for very long. They do say it is very drought-prone.

johnw
Last edited by johnw on Tue Aug 28, 2012 10:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Paul Ont
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Re: Qui & Ma Hardiest Bamboos

Post by Paul Ont »

I'd also be interested in this article if it can be found.
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Re: Qui & Ma Hardiest Bamboos

Post by bambooweb »

Paul Ont wrote:I'd also be interested in this article if it can be found.
The ABS Journal Archive is at: http://bamboo.org/publications/download.php?list.3

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Re: Qui & Ma Hardiest Bamboos

Post by johnw »

I looked in the Archive but it only goes back to 2007 unless I'm doing something wrong.

Okay after three attempts on the Mac I tried on my laptop and the older Journals finally did come up. First off, the scientists placed potted bamboos in a freezer as low as -10, then -15 and -20c and came up with hardiness results which as you might rightly guess are totally absurd - i.e. tops was P. aurea, #2 atro and #3 bambusoides need I say more. Why they bother themselves with these types of experiments in an artificial environment is beyond me - just plant them out in a field in the real world for 10 years and record the results.

Next were tests on soluble sugar content (more = ++ hardiness) of leaves. P. glauca ranked #1, #2 was P. flexuosa and #3 was P. rutila. Of note P. bissetii and p. bambusoides rated least cold resistant!

Finally they did do the field trials and tested for cold resistance of leaf, branch, culm and rhizome.

Grade 1 (i.e. leaf, branch, culm & rhizome hardy) were as follows:

1. P. aureosulcata f. spectabilis Chu & Chao
2. P. propinqua McClure
3. P. aureosulcata f. aureosulcata
4. P. decora McClure
5. P. dulcis McClure
6. P. iridescens Yao & Chen (do we have the correct form in the west?)
7. P. nuda f. nuda
8. P. nuda f. localis Wang & Yu
9. P. parvifolia Chu & Chao
10. P. arcana f. arcana
11. P. aureosulcata f. aureocaulis
12. P. glauca f. glauca (could this be Notso that Brad rates as an A-?)
13. P. aureosulcata f. pekinsensis Lu (I assume this is 'Alata')
14. P., glauca v. variabilis Lu (who knows this?)
15. P. nidularia Munro
16. P. praecox f. praecox
17. P. angusta McClure
18. Bashania fargesii
19. Pleioblastus amarus (Keng) Keng f.
20. Indocalamus latifolius

Grade 2 (=i.e. failed in the leaf hardiness)

1. P. nigra v. henonis
2. P. robustiramea
3. P. gozoadakensios
4. P. pubescens f. pubescens
5. P. flexuosa
6. P. glauca f. Yunshu Lu

Grade 3 (=i.e. failed in leaf & branch hardiness)

1. P. bambusoides
2. P. aurea

Grade 4 (i.e. failed in leaf, branch & culm hardiness)

1. P. viridis f. Houzeauana
2. P. viridis f. Youngii
3. P. bambusoides f. bambusoides

Grade 5 were obviously dead as they failed in all categories.

To summarize their conclusions "the Beijing district (having no naturally occuring bamboo spoecies) can support the introduction of these more cold resistant species. They can be planted and will survive in the warm, irrigable lands which have been wind-proofed."

Points:

64 bamboos were tested so 31 must have been in Grade 5 and packed it in.

Beijing's record low is -18.3c, record high 39.1c; really not all that cold.

The mountain bamboos from sw China at over 3000m could not handle the climate in Beijing hence there were no Fargesias in their trials.

Looks like P. nidularia Munro, P. iridescens Yao & Chen and P. glauca f. glauca might be worth a try and certainly the Bashania. Now to see how these compare with Brad's ratings; I can't recall P. nidularia being on his list.

johnw
johnw coastal Nova Scotia
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