Phyllostachys nigra variegata

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Deane
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Re: Phyllostachys nigra variegata

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Said bamboo has arrived
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Re: Phyllostachys nigra variegata

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Nicholas
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Re: Phyllostachys nigra variegata

Post by Nicholas »

I've also received my plant today but there were some troubles during shipping, leaving the boo in a not so ideal state.

The seller, Eden Exotics, has been very professional about the incident and has offered me a refund.
I'm sure I'll be buying from them in the future as they have quite a few hedychiums and other interesting exotics that are hard to come by here in Austria.

As to the plant's ID, I'm almost 100% positive it is not Hibanobambusa.
It looks pretty much exactly what a really young phyllostachys would look like.

At this stage the plant is too small to say anything definitive. I hope my specimen survives and has enough viable rhizome buds. If not I'll be buying one again in the near future ;).

I'll post updates with pictures once the plant has recovered a bit and one see the characteristics a bit better.
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Deane
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Re: Phyllostachys nigra variegata

Post by Deane »

Nicholas wrote:I've also received my plant today but there were some troubles during shipping, leaving the boo in a not so ideal state.

The seller, Eden Exotics, has been very professional about the incident and has offered me a refund.
I'm sure I'll be buying from them in the future as they have quite a few hedychiums and other interesting exotics that are hard to come by here in Austria.

As to the plant's ID, I'm almost 100% positive it is not Hibanobambusa.
It looks pretty much exactly what a really young phyllostachys would look like.

At this stage the plant is too small to say anything definitive. I hope my specimen survives and has enough viable rhizome buds. If not I'll be buying one again in the near future ;).

I'll post updates with pictures once the plant has recovered a bit and one see the characteristics a bit better.
Hope your's picks up Nicholas ,same seller as me ,I am looking forward to the progress of both are boos
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Re: Phyllostachys nigra variegata

Post by Van-isle-bamboo »

Any update on the var nigra you two bought? Is it proving to be true nigra? Super excited I
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Re: Phyllostachys nigra variegata

Post by Nicholas »

Van-isle-bamboo wrote:Any update on the var nigra you two bought? Is it proving to be true nigra? Super excited I
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Hi,

it will be at least until the weekend before I can take some pictures (lets hope I don't forget ;) ) of the plant.
It was clinging on for bare life for quite some time but has put on a bit more size recently so, knock on wood, hopefully it will pull through all right.

Now on to the interesting question: what is it?
Well, I still don't know! I'm currently leaning a bit more towards a phyllostachys than something like pleioblastus viridistriatus but the plant is still so young that the culms are not very distinctive at all. Maybe once the next set of shoots appears it will become clearer.

Deane might be able to say more in this regard since his plant didn't suffer such a big set-back.
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Re: Phyllostachys nigra variegata

Post by Deane »

Sorry but mine died only boo I have ever lost ,I see the seller has them for sale again but I don't think I will chance it again
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Re: Phyllostachys nigra variegata

Post by Nicholas »

Hey everyone,

it has taken a while but here they are - pictures of the supposed nigra "aureo variegata"
I forgot to check the pot size but it should be around 7.5 to 10 Liter so you may get an idea of the size of the plant.

I have no experience with pleioblastus auricomus but to me it seems like the most likely mix-up candidate.
Unless I get a culm with definitive phyllostachys characteristics I'm still leaning towards pleioblastus or something else.
It just seems too good to be true.

Apparently being outside made the plant lose its purplish oral setae which it had on new shoots indoors.
The culms are somewhat rough to the touch and you should be able to make out the hairs on new culms in the pictures.
Also the bright sun did leave the leaves in a rather rugged state.

Happy growing,

Nicholas
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Re: Phyllostachys nigra variegata

Post by Tarzanus »

Culms seem to have tiny hair on them (last picture). They look just like Moso seedlings I've grown.
If it is in fact a new variation of Moso seedling, it needs to go out of the pot into the wild. :)
It's not unusual for the variegated leaves to get sunburn damage. I have the same issue with my variegated seedlings. They get damaged much easier than specimens with green leaves. Hibanobambusa tranquillans 'Shiroshima' is also fast to show necrotic spots and dry leaf tips during heat waves. As winter was brutal this year, summer already showed high temperatures and hot windy weather with scorching sun. I think we live close enough to say we both had similar conditions. Got to 36°C down here.

It looks great! I can see some branches that are most likely Phyllostachys. It may be too early to tell, but I'm sure it will be a nice bamboo. The photos you have posted doesn't seem related to the bamboo photo they have placed in their online shop under the item description. No way these culms will ever get black, if I see correctly (last pic again), they are fading into yellowish color.

Even if it's Moso it seems to be nice variegation. You will be able to tell us more about it's hardiness soon.
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Re: Phyllostachys nigra variegata

Post by Chris S »

Tee-hee!


Best place to start looking for the identity of stuff like this is in the Bamboo Select Catalogue

My money is on 'Shiroshima', but I will happy to be proven wrong and to have a new variety of P. nigra with much larger, variegated leaves, enormous oral setae, and single branches!
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Re: Phyllostachys nigra variegata

Post by Tarzanus »

I have never seen Hibanobambusa tranquillans Shiroshima with fuzzy culms. They are glossy, green, with vertical cream-ish stripe now and then. On the following photo, it's evident that there are some velvety hairs covering the culms.
Image

It also seem to be in a juvenile form, so a bit larger leaves are not excluding Phyllostachys. As mentioned, there are no nodes with more than one branch on these photos. That is highly unlikely for Phyllostachys. It could also be some kind of hybrid like the Shiroshima.

I checked the photo of my Phyllostachys arcana (luteosulcata) seedling. Sadly I don't have a close up of the branches, but it seems these too have single branches. It's 1 year old seedling that got stressed on couple occasions and remained small. It was from Phyllostachys seeds and most seedlings came out normal and they have 2 branches per node. I actually never thought about checking that, because I took it for granted that these variegated seedlings are not hybrids. What if they are? If I'm not mistaken, some kind of pleioblastus also flowered that season in the same garden where the seeds were gathered. I'll check them a bit more, but I think it's still in a juvenile phase and it's impossible to make any conclusion. I doubt it's a hybrid though, however, it is strange I received 2 highly variegated seedlings (they look very similar, so far only the culms are showing different coloring) from less than 100 seeds. I got one out from merely 10 test seeds I planted.

Image

Thank you for pointing out the branches. Now I'm also a bit curious. :)

Edit: added photo of my seedling. I think it has been published in another topic, if not this one, I posted very similar photo.
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Re: Phyllostachys nigra variegata

Post by Chris S »

I agree that the hairy culms and also the hairy culm sheaths are not as I have seen them on 'Shiroshima', but I have only seen normally grown plants, not ones that have had all sorts of hormones chucked on them in tissue culture.

What is clear is that the picture is a fake, a composite of 2 photos, you can see the 3 culms in the photo are poorly cropped along their edges.
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Re: Phyllostachys nigra variegata

Post by Tarzanus »

Oh, you mean that photo on their website. That is a fake picture. The culms are from Phyllostachys nigra, but are at least the leaves behind the leaves of the bamboo they sell? I think there's too much yellow in them to be Spectabilis. Could be some variegated Pleioblastus (like Pleioblastus viridistriatus). The photos from Nicholas and Deane are true and the leaves are variegated. Who knows what kind of bamboo it is - I'm sure it's not Nigra, but I would not exclude Phyllostachys yet. Like I said, those fuzzy culms look identical to my Moso seedlings's culms. http://img.cold-hardy.com/2013/06/moso_rhizome.jpg

I don't think I have better photo. I have whole collection on my blog, but majority are from maturer plants. I have lost juvenile Moso photos when a photo hosting provider bit the dust. I have originals thoug, but that will take some time to get through. :) I'll check the branches.
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Re: Phyllostachys nigra variegata

Post by Van-isle-bamboo »

Well mine has a small sulcas. No coloring on the culms yet either. I'm on the fence about nigra too. Maybe it was a TC mess up but I thought booshoots had that on lockdown with a patent. The picture online is definitely a fake. The leaves are very nice though.
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Re: Phyllostachys nigra variegata

Post by Tarzanus »

I doubt it's tissue culture nigra at all. I think there is a possibility that a small nursery bought fake Phyllostachys nigra seeds from who knows where (there are many!) and received plain ol' Moso seeds. They got a variegated seedling and then they propagated that seedling - most likely using tissue culture.

I doubt any of their plants is much larger than pencil size diameter at the moment. Everything seems to have happened so fast... I doubt they even waited to see how bamboo looks like when fully mature.
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