Origin of Phyllostachys propinqua 'Beijing'

[bambooweb]

Please forward this info on to whomever may be interested in the origin of Phyllostachys propinqua 'Beijing':

The only information I have on Phyllostachys propinqua 'Beijing' is that the plant (then with the name Phyllostachys propinqua) was received by Dr James W Waddick some time in the fall of 1987. He sent the plant to me in August of 1988 with a note stating "The plant originated in Beijing,but the ID is not sure.Hopefully you can tell me in a year of two what it is."

In my opinion, it more closely resembles Phyllostachys flexuosa and perhaps should be given a new name. Both plants have the same physical form and produce new shoots at the same time of the year.The difference being that the 'Beijing' shoots have their culm sheaths cover with fine powder making the shoots appear gray. When the powder is wiped off, they look similar to flexuosa shoots (before it flowered). Unfortunately, 'Beijing' did not flower when my flexuosa flowered several years ago, but the new growth on the small recovering flexuosa plant now seems to resemble the 'Beijing' more that the original flexuosa (the new shoots are still quite small yet, so their final form may change, but wouldn't be interesting if...).< br>
David Andrews

Oxon Hill MD

[mito0]

flexuosa, eh? that's very interesting. thanks for the info.
'beijing' is much more hardy than flex, though, yes? i wonder if it has any of flex's other traits, like tolerance of alkaline soil or drought resistance?
maybe this plant should be called phyllostachys sp. 'beijing' (like f. rufa was before it was properly id'ed) instead of calling it a variation of propinqua.