One of the branches showing more variegation...

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Tarzanus
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One of the branches showing more variegation...

Post by Tarzanus »

Today I've noticed that Phyllostachys aureosulcata 'Spectabilis' has one branch that is much more variegated than others. Well in fact, by now there's almost no variegation on that bamboo (variegation usually fades when the third leaf unrolls), except thin white stripe on some leaves. Well, the variegated branch has all the leaves variegated and not only thin stripe, some are mostly white, with some green color.

I'm not sure what could cause the variegation on only one tiny branch. With proper equipment, it would be interesting to try growing tissue culture plants from the cells of those highly variegated leaves.
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Jeff: Igor's Apprentice
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Re: One of the branches showing more variegation...

Post by Jeff: Igor's Apprentice »

Very interesting. I would love to see it.
However, randomly striped plants generally don't tissue culture.

I wonder what would happen if you tried to graft a segment of culm to a piece of rhizome....
Just thinking out loud here....
Tarzanus
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Re: One of the branches showing more variegation...

Post by Tarzanus »

I'll try to find it and take a photo. It's just a small branch, so grafting would do nothing, even if by some miracle you could be able to do it. Did anyone ever successfully grafted bamboo?
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Re: One of the branches showing more variegation...

Post by Nicholas »

Tarzanus wrote:I'll try to find it and take a photo. It's just a small branch, so grafting would do nothing, even if by some miracle you could be able to do it. Did anyone ever successfully grafted bamboo?
I've tried it with tropicals (I sent home smaller pieces of culms from a holiday) with no luck.
After that experiment I'm inclined to believe that grafting bamboo is either incredibly hard and would require a lab environment or impossible (at least using culms, I have no idea about grafting a culm with a piece of rhizome to another rhizome)

I didn't expect the graft to grow together properly but was hoping that nutrients would be able to flow so I could get the piece of culm to root.

On a side note, none of the sent culms made it. I had a Gigantichloa pseudoarundinacea culm piece produce an offshoot but it ran out of nutrients to produce roots :(


One more thing I just remembered:

If you happen to be in a position where you want to send pieces of culms/branches that are rather small I found that filling them with water and sealing the ends with tissues drenched in Vaseline worked quite well. They were in transit for around a month and arrived totally green and looking like they were just cut.
Tarzanus
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Re: One of the branches showing more variegation...

Post by Tarzanus »

One leaf dropped already, so there are only three left. Variegation isn't typical for Spectabilis, which usually only shows thin stripes on first leaf of each branch, early in the season (at least this specimen, except for this little branch).
Image

Sadly I didn't take a photo a week ago whith one more variegated leaf, that one was almost completely white.
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needmore
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Re: One of the branches showing more variegation...

Post by needmore »

Few years back I had an entire culm of yellow groove with variegated leaves on every branch. They held into the next year but I never pursued an attempt to propagate it.
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Jeff: Igor's Apprentice
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Re: One of the branches showing more variegation...

Post by Jeff: Igor's Apprentice »

That reminds me. I thought I saw a totally variegated culm in a grove of bamboo alongside the interstate a week or two ago. Those who know me well know that I have a talent for spotting these kinds of things. It's not too far from home but it's really difficult to get a good look at while going past it at 70mph. I don't know exactly where it's at or what species of bamboo it is or how I would possibly locate whose property the grove butts up against. Oh well. I guess it will just be one of those things. Even if I did find a place to pull over and ran across the interstate with a shovel, it's deep into the grove up a steep slope. :lol:
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Re: One of the branches showing more variegation...

Post by foxd »

I've occasionally wondered if there might be a variegated Arundinaria gigantea out there somewhere.
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Re: One of the branches showing more variegation...

Post by Alan_L »

My variegated Semiarundinaria okuboi culm/rhizome is still alive, and it appears to have produced a second small culm. I think it's been 3 years since I've first noticed this variegation. It's at the edge of the raised planting bed, so I might be able to get it out and pot it, but that task always falls to the bottom of the list each year.
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Re: One of the branches showing more variegation...

Post by oobmab »

Jeff: Igor's Apprentice wrote:That reminds me. I thought I saw a totally variegated culm in a grove of bamboo alongside the interstate a week or two ago. Those who know me well know that I have a talent for spotting these kinds of things. It's not too far from home but it's really difficult to get a good look at while going past it at 70mph. I don't know exactly where it's at or what species of bamboo it is or how I would possibly locate whose property the grove butts up against. Oh well. I guess it will just be one of those things. Even if I did find a place to pull over and ran across the interstate with a shovel, it's deep into the grove up a steep slope. :lol:
Give me the NC county in which the boo's located and I'll see if I can help you locate the owner. I encountered a similar situation recently and got what I wanted.
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