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Jim Mortensen (JM Bamboo) played with the Ventricosa in water a couple of years back and he may still have it up on his website. As I recall he kept all but the top inch or so submerged in a bucket of water for more than a year, maybe closer to 2.

Kimmie can take months submerged with out showing stress as mine had to deal with this year. Had a couple inches of water over the ground where I planted it. Same as my Ventricosa . Nasty wet year.
MarCat

marcat wrote:Kimmie can take months submerged with out showing stress as mine had to deal with this year. Had a couple inches of water over the ground where I planted it. Same as my Ventricosa . Nasty wet year.
MarCat

You got my water! Give it back!

Roy Rogers
DryCoast of Florida

My new book acquisition, 'A Compendium of Chinese Bamboo' lists as separate species:

Subgen. Bambusa B. ventricosa - "Bamboo with normal culm and abnormal culm...Both kinds initially thinly pruinose, smooth, glabrous, a brownish grey deciduous pannose ring below both culm annulus and sheath annulus: sheath hard, brittle, olive, glabrous, its top almost unsymmetrical, broad arcuate, convex or almost truncate: sheath auricles unequal, the large one double the small one, corrugated, with wavy cilia on margin...sheath blade loose, erect or extending outward, broad ovally triangular, its base heart shaped...leaves linearly lanceolate to lanceolate...6-18cm long 1-2cm wide...distribution Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian"

Subgen. Leleba (Nakai) B. tuldoides cv. Swolleninternode - "Differs from the original in lower internodes being short and swollen." For B. tuldoides "Culm green, pruinose, glabrous with even joints: sheath green or dark green, shorter than internode, its top unsymmetrical, round arcuate: sheath auricles unequal, dark brown, the larger ovate, slightly rugate, the smaller elliptic with curved cilia on margin...sheath blade triangularly lanceolate, erect, its base circularly contracted... leaves lanceolate, 10-20 cm long, 1.2-1.8cm wide shoots July-September ..distribution Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Yunnan..."

There, I hope that helps to clear things up..

needmore wrote:My new book acquisition, 'A Compendium of Chinese Bamboo' lists as separate species:

Subgen. Bambusa B. ventricosa - "Bamboo with normal culm and abnormal culm...Both kinds initially thinly pruinose, smooth, glabrous, a brownish grey deciduous pannose ring below both culm annulus and sheath annulus: sheath hard, brittle, olive, glabrous, its top almost unsymmetrical, broad arcuate, convex or almost truncate: sheath auricles unequal, the large one double the small one, corrugated, with wavy cilia on margin...sheath blade loose, erect or extending outward, broad ovally triangular, its base heart shaped...leaves linearly lanceolate to lanceolate...6-18cm long 1-2cm wide...distribution Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian"

Subgen. Leleba (Nakai) B. tuldoides cv. Swolleninternode - "Differs from the original in lower internodes being short and swollen." For B. tuldoides "Culm green, pruinose, glabrous with even joints: sheath green or dark green, shorter than internode, its top unsymmetrical, round arcuate: sheath auricles unequal, dark brown, the larger ovate, slightly rugate, the smaller elliptic with curved cilia on margin...sheath blade triangularly lanceolate, erect, its base circularly contracted... leaves lanceolate, 10-20 cm long, 1.2-1.8cm wide shoots July-September ..distribution Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Yunnan..."

There, I hope that helps to clear things up..

It never was unclear in my mind!

Of course, what do I know! I've had the A Compendium of Chinese Bamboo for quite some time now. Albeit with some errors, it does give a lot of detail on different bamboos.

Roy, if you can forget what you already know about them, from reading those 2 descriptions would you think there are any discernible differences between the 2? I'm just curious how these are considered different species in China and am wondering if the B. tuldoides does indeed produce some culms with compressed lower internodes.

needmore wrote:Roy, if you can forget what you already know about them, from reading those 2 descriptions would you think there are any discernible differences between the 2? I'm just curious how these are considered different species in China and am wondering if the B. tuldoides does indeed produce some culms with compressed lower internodes.

Brad,

To even add more to the confusion, I believe that some B. tuldoides in China do produce some bellying. My B. textilis, when the culms get some size to them, do some "ventricosing" with bulging above the basal nodes: