Please help with this Phyllostachys...

bambusforum.dk · **Posted:** Tue Jun 02, 2009 1:14 pm

Hi!

Im from Denmark and last week I went to Germany for a short vacation!

I found a big and strong Phyllostachys and because of its look I bought it. On the label it was written a Phyllostachys makinoi, but I can see that it is wrong.

I have postet my pictures on my site, so please take a look at all the pictures:
http://bambusforum.dk/forum/index.php?topic=156.0

I hope that someone can help me!

Dennis, Denmark

needmore · **Posted:** Tue Jun 02, 2009 4:26 pm

Perhaps Glauca 'Yunzhu'?

bambusforum.dk · **Posted:** Wed Jun 03, 2009 9:59 am

Well, if you take a look at the new shoots they look like some kind of Ph. nigra ....

David · **Posted:** Wed Jun 03, 2009 9:27 pm

The culm looks like Ph. nigra 'Muchisasa'. The shoot looks more like glauca, but would be easier to tell if it had not already elongated. Brad- My glauca 'Yunzhu' shoots are darker, and the spots more distinct and larger. I guess I'll stick with 'Muchisasa' for now. Isn't there another brown/purple spotted nigra bamboo in Europe that is much like 'Muchisasa'?

Note:Ph.n.'Tosaensis' was the plant I was thinking of as being in Europe.

needmore · **Posted:** Wed Jun 03, 2009 10:34 pm

Except I don't recall Glauca having oral setae? Could it possible be bambusoides 'Tanakae'? Don't grow it so I don't know if it has oral setae either.

To my eye, the blades are not crinkled like the Nigra forms would be - even at this stage no?

dependable · **Posted:** Thu Jun 04, 2009 1:00 am

if culms are mature and not damaged, it looks like P Nigra Borida.

ghmerrill · **Posted:** Thu Jun 04, 2009 3:00 am

the shoots dont look like P. nigra shoots of any form, and the coloring is not right for bambusoides Tanake- it has pretty large markings on the culms. Notice the clumpy wax on the new shoots? isnt that a trait of P. glauca? not sure if its Yunzhu though, I thought it had larger splotches too......

David · **Posted:** Thu Jun 04, 2009 10:56 am

OK. Let me throw another one in the mix. Could it be a form of propinqua, look at the boat shaped leaves on the older culms. Or could it be a form of praecox. After looking at all the pics again I think I rule out nigra or bambusoides. The culm/shoot in the pot beside this one was distracting until I figured out it was a separate plant.

bambusforum.dk · **Posted:** Thu Jun 04, 2009 11:17 am

I took some more pictures now:

http://bambusforum.dk/forum/index.php?t ... 796#msg796

Does that help?

Well, the culm is mature and without damages!

needmore · **Posted:** Thu Jun 04, 2009 6:05 pm

This is a tough one, does anyone with Phy meyeri think that is a possibility? Mine is an unhappy runt with juvenile shoots so I don't know what they look like when proper sized.

David · **Posted:** Thu Jun 04, 2009 8:11 pm

The shoots are similar to meyeri. Mine is starting to leaf out but I'll look at it on the way home. But what about the brown markings? Could this be a mixed planting?

needmore · **Posted:** Thu Jun 04, 2009 8:34 pm

Unless there was a grove with those dark/brown markings, it could be environmental and misleading. I have read some people's speculation that Phy violescens may well be a form of Phy bambusoides. Perhaps there are many different forms of it with some having culm coloration such as this - do you think there is strong dissimilarity with bambusoides shoots here?

To my eye the key features of the shoot leaves are the long, smooth blades and the nigra forms, vivax, bambusoides??, etc will have crinkled or wavy blades. Other species with the long smooth blades are glauca, flexuosa, li-yu gan, iridescens, aurea, viridis - what else? And having seen oral setae on an odd viridis shoot or 2, I can be willing to ignore those in his photos unless the more mature looking shoots have them.

EDIT - Also, the branching habit looks unique and the white rings on same may be helpful.

David · **Posted:** Fri Jun 05, 2009 1:21 am

I have a three year old violascens grove that this year put up some striped culms. The culms have always been very dark green, and have always sun blackened much like arcana. The shoots have lots of dark spots, and do resemble bambusoides, so I can see how one might think they were related. I don't see any sun darkening on the plant in question although the plant behind it appears to show some darkening.

All the bambusoides I am growing (the oldest 3.5 years in the ground) have wrinkled sheath blades. To be honest I have a very hard time telling vivax, and bambusoides apart they are so similar.

It could be iridescens, but mine always sun darkens above the sheath edge. Another feature is that you can make out faint stripes on new culms, but once again the shoots have lots of dark brown/purple spots. It does have straight sheath blades.

Angusta?

ShmuBamboo · **Posted:** Fri Jun 05, 2009 8:06 am

I think it's Bory. Phyllostachys nigra Bory (or Boriana). My Bory is shooting now, and it has the same color sheaths (darker than all my other types of nigra sheaths that are all shooting now). My Bory also has straight sheath blades. No frills. Also Bory has the tiger-black/brown splotchy culms as shown in your first photos (similar to Phy. glauca 'Yunzhu'), and has small leaves with light leaf tip burning on them this time of year. It took me 3 years to finally ID my Bory, after it started getting its spots. It looks like it is still in juvenile form there in your photos, about the same size as mine, so it is not going to be in 'true to key' shooting form until it sends up adult shoots. Some of you here are falling for that... My brother has 'Yunzhu' and it looks somewhat different than Bory does. It has more darker, uniformed color round spots, whereas Bory has variable random shaped blobs of dark brown and black. If you look at Bory splotches with a glass, it looks like layers of scalloped overlayed colors that are like the pattern of oyster shells. As this is in Europe, it may also be Phy. nigra 'Tosaensis', though that variety prefers half shade and has less blotchy culms than what you show in the first photos.

Black bamboos are very cunning at disguise. I got a clump of Henon (Phy. nigra Henon) in California that was said to be Golden (Phy. aurea). Here in the PNW Henon culms are more golden than Golden is. No grey at all. I got my Bory from a private garden in Eugene, OR and they did not know what it was. I thought it was vivax at first, then vivax 'black spot', then finally nigra Bory after the spots turned into typical bory patterns, and I noticed the typical 'black' smaller leaves that often grow in clusters and clumps. Also what is typically grown here in the PNW as Phy. nigra (type) and called "black", is really Phy. nigra Punctada. It has ripe banana peel colored culms that turn black very slowly over a few years. They sometimes turn all black, sometimes stay ripe banana peel spotted black, and sometimes stay green and only lightly spotted. They are considerably larger than the type form of Phy. nigra.

Markj · **Posted:** Fri Jun 05, 2009 9:53 am

I've a feeling it'll turn out to be Phyllostachys nigra Boriana, admittedly the new shoots pics don't look right but I'm putting that down to a 'small plant in a pot syndrome' :wink:

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