Need ID on some groundcover boos

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Rufledt
Posts: 191
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2011 4:35 am
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Location: South WI

Need ID on some groundcover boos

Post by Rufledt »

Hi everybody, I recently got a bunch of bamboo from Steve, including 4 groundcover plants that I can't identify. He told me what some of them were but I must've forgotten.

Anyway, here's #1:

Image

#2 has some variegated leaves:
Image

#3 has leaves bunched up around the end of the culms:
Image
Here's a leaf close up:
Image

#4 doesn't has leaves as clumped as #3:
Image

Once I know what these are, I can better decide where to put them. The one thing I do know is that these small pots I had laying around can't hold them for long!

Also, a big thanks to Steve for all the plants I got from him.
Rufledt
Posts: 191
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2011 4:35 am
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Location: South WI

Re: Need ID on some groundcover boos

Post by Rufledt »

From looking around online (and from steve's plant list) I think #1 is Shibataea Kumasaca, and #2 is Pleioblastus Viridistiatus. Does that seem right?

Steve says #3 is Pleioblastus distichus.

Anyone have an idea on number 4? I can get better pictures tomorrow with an actual camera if that will help people identify it.
johnw
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Bamboo Society Membership: EBS - Germany
Location: HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA

Re: Need ID on some groundcover boos

Post by johnw »

#4 looks like what we have here as straight Pleioblastus pygmaeus.
johnw coastal Nova Scotia
Rufledt
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Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2011 4:35 am
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Location: South WI

Re: Need ID on some groundcover boos

Post by Rufledt »

Thanks! I looked that up and it said it's related to #3, which makes sense because I thought they looked very similar except for the leaf grouping. I'm zone 5/6 at my place here in upstate NY, how many of those would survive outside? I read they are mostly root hardy to very cold temps, though they may top kill. That would be good because I have a lot of shade/dappled sun in my back yard and I wouldn't mind adding some plants other than my thin lawn for some visual interest.
johnw
Posts: 1617
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Bamboo Society Membership: EBS - Germany
Location: HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA

Re: Need ID on some groundcover boos

Post by johnw »

Rufledt wrote:Thanks! I looked that up and it said it's related to #3, which makes sense because I thought they looked very similar except for the leaf grouping. I'm zone 5/6 at my place here in upstate NY, how many of those would survive outside? I read they are mostly root hardy to very cold temps, though they may top kill. That would be good because I have a lot of shade/dappled sun in my back yard and I wouldn't mind adding some plants other than my thin lawn for some visual interest.

No problem with any of those here. Be careful of the Pleioblastus, when they say hyper-invasive they mean it. A friend planted one and in 3 years it may a 30ft run into his begetasble garden. He had already dug a stack of rhizomes 4ft high x 6ft wide when I arrived one night. Of them all the Shibatea is the most civilized runner.
johnw coastal Nova Scotia
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