Pleioblastus fortunei

Alan_L · **Posted:** Fri Mar 27, 2009 10:22 pm

My Pleio. fortunei has started shooting, and I was excited about seeing the vibrant variegation on the fresh new leaves. Took a closer look today and wow, it's more colorful than I expected! -- oh, wait. Those are the flowers forming.

Seems kinda cruel that it's only a couple inches tall and the flowers are forming already.

Well, they're colorful at least. I only spent $10 on it last summer (5 gal. pot), so if it's a goner I'm not too upset. Is it done for? Will it produce viable seed? How long until the seed ripens if it is viable?

ghmerrill · **Posted:** Sat Mar 28, 2009 12:27 am

Hey Alan!

bummer on the Pleo...... Mine did that last spring. I hacked it into several small pots, but most died. I do have one that made it, and has a couple of small shoots, so hopfully it does not show signs of flowering. P. fortunei has been flowering for a while, but I have yet to hear of any seed sucess- most people who get them to grow are getting green plants (wouldnt that mean that P. fortunei is really P. <something else> 'Fortunei')

ocimum_nate · **Posted:** Sat Mar 28, 2009 2:28 am

I wouldn't mind trying the seeds again I didn't get anything to come up although the seeds were fully formed they seemed to show a secondary form of dormancy I would probably try some gibberilic acid or try to stratify them for 90 days.

needmore · **Posted:** Sat Mar 28, 2009 4:54 am

I have 3, 2 1/2 year old seedlings from a 2006 flowering in Arkansas - all are green. My patch flowered last summer so I mowed it down. I'll be curious to see if anything comes up there this year.

Alan_L · **Posted:** Mon Apr 27, 2009 7:02 pm

It seems that not all of the shoots have flowers on them. Is that a good sign?

Brad, is the one you mowed doing anything yet?

needmore · **Posted:** Tue Apr 28, 2009 4:23 am

Alan_L wrote:

It seems that not all of the shoots have flowers on them. Is that a good sign?

Brad, is the one you mowed doing anything yet?

Alan, here and there I see new variegated leaves coming on, for the most part the patch is bare dirt.

Mike McG · **Posted:** Sat May 02, 2009 1:45 pm

ghmerrill wrote:

... most people who get them to grow are getting green plants (wouldnt that mean that P. fortunei is really P. <something else> 'Fortunei')

Unfortunately, as with Ph nigra, it appears that when the "parent" gets named after the variation has already been named, it is named as a variety such as Ph nigra 'Henon'; so I presume the all green seedling would be it would be Pl fortunei 'Something or other'. However, these days with DNA analysis, it might be shown that they are both variations of third already named green Pleioblastus, in which case if the new seedling appears to be identical to the original parent I think there is an argument that it probably should carry that original parents name.

I have seen arguments that there should be a differentiation between a bamboo seedling and the parent, but that is not the case with most plants, especially annuals and other plants that seed regularly. I think a seedling should only carry a differentiating name if it is noticeably different from the parent.

Mike near Brenham TX

foxd · **Posted:** Sat May 02, 2009 5:34 pm

How similar are Pleioblastus shibuyanus 'Tsuboi' and Pleioblastus fortunei? The flowers on my Tsuboi are very similar to the pictures of the fortunei flowers posted. Could the two be the same species?

Alan_L · **Posted:** Sat May 02, 2009 9:12 pm

I have the 'Tsuboi' in a pot so I did a side-by-side for you. Plus closeups of new leaves on both. Difference in shades of green between the 2 may be due to soil conditions in the pot, or may be typical of each species (I don't know).

The 'Tsuboi' seems to have each leaf looking pretty similar, with the center white stripe on pretty much every leaf. The fortuneii leaves are quite varied -- some have more white stripes, some less. There is no consistent central white stripe, although some of the leaves have one.

As you can see the 'Tsuboi' is pretty small, so maybe a more mature plant looks different.

foxd · **Posted:** Sun May 03, 2009 1:33 pm

Alan, thanks for posting the side by side views. The center stripe on the leaves on the fortunei was more consistent in your pictures than I was expecting. What was traded to me as a Tsuboi could very well be a fortunei. Darn!

Alan_L · **Posted:** Sun May 03, 2009 3:53 pm

foxd wrote:

The center stripe on the leaves on the fortunei was more consistent in your pictures than I was expecting.

You meant to say 'Tsuboi', right? I would NOT say the fortunei stripes are consistent at all. I could post more photos showing this if it's not clear.

Don't know why I always add an extra 'i' at the end of 'fortunei' either. I did it in the label in the image too.

foxd · **Posted:** Mon May 04, 2009 12:42 am

Here are some pictures of the plant I have that was traded to me as Tsuboi. As you can see it is in flower. But is it Tsuboi or fortunei?

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ghmerrill · **Posted:** Mon May 04, 2009 5:03 am

well, I would say time should tell, doesnt Tsuboi get taller than Fortunei? flowering however, may affect that. :wink:

I do not recall hearing anything about Tsuboi flowering, while I have heard several folks have had fortunei flower, so I would lean more toward fortunei. of course, with flowers to ID off of, you should be able to positively ID, as the flowers are one of the best ID characteristics, arent they?

Alan_L · **Posted:** Mon May 04, 2009 11:52 am

Those pics look a lot more like my 'Tsuboi' than my fortunei.

How many flowers are there? My fortunei has pretty much every culm topped with a flower (it was mowed down after the winter so there are no culms from last year). Perhaps the 'Tsuboi' flowering is stress-related.

needmore · **Posted:** Mon May 04, 2009 12:42 pm

Dan, that is Pl. shibuyanus 'Tsuboi' you have, not the pl. fortunei. I wonder if the US name needs to have a cultivar attached to what we call fortunei (such as variegata), as I THINK there is an all-green form by the same name in Europe :?:

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Pleioblastus fortunei

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