Dendrocalamus sp. 'Parker's Giant' flowering

[Roy]

This is what I've been looking for. At least something similar, but no luck at all. The "seed pods" just seem to be designating.

http://www.bambooweb.info/images/bamboo ... flower.jpg


[quote="bambambooboo"]Hiya Roy. In fact I was just out inspecting and this morning pulled off a flowering section to photo for forum (will post pic later). I think I see some sort of filament coming out of the seed pod thingy but I'm not sure what I'm looking at./quote]

[bambambooboo]

No idea what designating means. I don't know if what I think I see emanating from flower will turn out as elaborate as your pic but here's what I've got so far...

(please excuse poor quality, just took with very old pocket camera)....


The few leaves you see are an adjacent seabreeze







If you think these might be more viable than yours (though I've no idea why as one is clone of the other, you're welcome to harvest here (though then I get the pick of the litter, I've already named him Parker 2.0)

This is what I've been looking for. At least something similar, but no luck at all. The "seed pods" just seem to be designating.

http://www.bambooweb.info/images/bamboo ... flower.jpg

Hiya Roy. In fact I was just out inspecting and this morning pulled off a flowering section to photo for forum (will post pic later). I think I see some sort of filament coming out of the seed pod thingy but I'm not sure what I'm looking at./quote]

[Roy]

BamBamBooBoo,

"designating" is "disintegrating" after auto correct!

Looking at your pics, looks like you might having something starting. But bamboo flowering is somewhat of a rarity, with each bamboo producing a different type of flower, it's hard to say what we will eventually get. Your "upculm" picture looks like mine. My "flowers" are just disintegrating into "nothing" and I'm not getting any new growth, although it was 96 F Saturday and 95 F Sunday, both records for Tampa. And I water them almost every day. I have one pot, with a small twig like culm that produced some leaves, but nothing else.

I'm going to be very disappointed if the Parkers just die and and we are left with nothing.

Roy

[needmore]

For what it's worth and assuming I have the right plant, mine is leafing out quite a bit and no signs of flowers yet. It is in a pot still, obtained about a year ago from Robert S. Two small old culms and one shoot from last year about an inch in diameter.

[bambambooboo]

Think I've mentioned (on this thread?) that I've had only one other that flowered, sacred bali, but never lost leaves. flowered a few years in a row but always put up new culms each season. I'm hoping this is similar though I'm not encouraged by it having lost all leaves before going to seed.

The disintegration is odd. I'd suggest maybe too much watering weren't everything so parched. I've just been doing a drip irrig about once or twice a week to give it time to soak down. Looks like we'll finally get rains this week.

If I think of it I'll keep an eye on these flowers and post occasion pics as they progress. Problem being most of that's up pretty high but I can maybe snip some off with pole saw every now and then to inspect.

I too hope they come back. Mine's finally sizing up nicely and I was looking forward to this year's growth.

BamBamBooBoo,

"designating" is "disintegrating" after auto correct!

Looking at your pics, looks like you might having something starting. But bamboo flowering is somewhat of a rarity, with each bamboo producing a different type of flower, it's hard to say what we will eventually get. Your "upculm" picture looks like mine. My "flowers" are just disintegrating into "nothing" and I'm not getting any new growth, although it was 96 F Saturday and 95 F Sunday, both records for Tampa. And I water them almost every day. I have one pot, with a small twig like culm that produced some leaves, but nothing else.

I'm going to be very disappointed if the Parkers just die and and we are left with nothing.

Roy

[bambambooboo]

I'd have thought Robert had from the same source as ours and I just checked his site which states from Hawaii so probably so. And I was just down there recently as my brother lives not far from him, often I stop in but did not this time around. Would have been interesting to see his Parkers but I wasn't thinking of it while there.

So both yours and Roy's potted ones are leafing. Maybe they only seed at a certain maturity? One thing that gives me hope, however false, is that my most mature clump, fully to seed, has perfectly healthy culms, not a mark of decay on them. So while I might worry that the damaged culms now seeding might not survive this, I'd hope these healthier ones have enough energy stored to put up new culms or at least to leaf out post seeding. I simply don't know.

The other reason why yours might be leafing, hate to say it but it sometimes happens, that you might not have Parkers. Stuff can get mixed up in nurseries. I think that's how I found this site, trying to ID one that turned out years later to not be what I thought I'd bought (not from Robert but anther guy down in Miami). And you might never know for certain until yours goes to seed next time around, in anywhere from 50 to 300 years. lol. Keep us informed on that.

For what it's worth and assuming I have the right plant, mine is leafing out quite a bit and no signs of flowers yet. It is in a pot still, obtained about a year ago from Robert S. Two small old culms and one shoot from last year about an inch in diameter.

[Roy]

Brad,

[[..assuming I have the right plant..]] Since it came from Robert, the percentages of it being the right plant would be pretty high, although there is an error factor in anything.

I've got one pot that put out a few leaves, but none of the other pots or nothing in the ground had leaves on them.

Roy

For what it's worth and assuming I have the right plant, mine is leafing out quite a bit and no signs of flowers yet. It is in a pot still, obtained about a year ago from Robert S. Two small old culms and one shoot from last year about an inch in diameter.

[Roy]

bambambooboo,

[[..that flowered, sacred bali, but never lost leaves...]] This is the first one I've had to flower that lost all of its leaves. No leaves means it's not giving off any moisture, via the leaves, thus pull nothing up the culms from the roots. That's what concerns me, especially with the high temps we are having and no leaves.

[[..The disintegration is odd...]] My Parker started flowering last Fall. Eventually lost all of its leaves. So the same flowers from last Fall or not growing/progressing any so they are (new word-same thing) deteriorating. Falling apart into little pieces and are not being replaced by new growth of any type.

[[..I too hope they come back. Mine's finally sizing up nicely and I was looking forward to this year's growth...]] 2015 my Parker put up culms 5 inches in diameter and I estimate about 40-50 feet tall. 2016 my Parker put up culms on 3 inches in diameter. In hind sight, I should have know something was going on as the flowering started on all culms, old and new, then the Fall of 2016.

Roy

Think I've mentioned (on this thread?) that I've had only one other that flowered, sacred bali, but never lost leaves. flowered a few years in a row but always put up new culms each season. I'm hoping this is similar though I'm not encouraged by it having lost all leaves before going to seed.

The disintegration is odd. I'd suggest maybe too much watering weren't everything so parched. I've just been doing a drip irrig about once or twice a week to give it time to soak down. Looks like we'll finally get rains this week.

If I think of it I'll keep an eye on these flowers and post occasion pics as they progress. Problem being most of that's up pretty high but I can maybe snip some off with pole saw every now and then to inspect.

I too hope they come back. Mine's finally sizing up nicely and I was looking forward to this year's growth.

[Roy]

bambambooboo,

[[..I'd have thought Robert had from the same source as ours and I just checked his site which states from Hawaii so probably so...]] That's my thinking. I wonder if Robert's Parker is flowering? I sent and email to John Rogers in Melbourne, FL asking about his Parker, but I haven't gotten any response.

[[..So both yours and Roy's potted ones are leafing...]] I've got only one branch of one very small culm that is doing that. The rest are "Buck Naked" (the old Southern way of saying it).

Roy

I'd have thought Robert had from the same source as ours and I just checked his site which states from Hawaii so probably so. And I was just down there recently as my brother lives not far from him, often I stop in but did not this time around. Would have been interesting to see his Parkers but I wasn't thinking of it while there.

So both yours and Roy's potted ones are leafing. Maybe they only seed at a certain maturity? One thing that gives me hope, however false, is that my most mature clump, fully to seed, has perfectly healthy culms, not a mark of decay on them. So while I might worry that the damaged culms now seeding might not survive this, I'd hope these healthier ones have enough energy stored to put up new culms or at least to leaf out post seeding. I simply don't know.

The other reason why yours might be leafing, hate to say it but it sometimes happens, that you might not have Parkers. Stuff can get mixed up in nurseries. I think that's how I found this site, trying to ID one that turned out years later to not be what I thought I'd bought (not from Robert but anther guy down in Miami). And you might never know for certain until yours goes to seed next time around, in anywhere from 50 to 300 years. lol. Keep us informed on that.

For what it's worth and assuming I have the right plant, mine is leafing out quite a bit and no signs of flowers yet. It is in a pot still, obtained about a year ago from Robert S. Two small old culms and one shoot from last year about an inch in diameter.

[Roy]

I sent a packet of my Parker's Giant's flowers to Dr. Chris Stapleton. This is my general interpretation of what he said. Nothing 100 percent specific, but more of an educated bamboo mind musing about the various possibilities on the ID. From what I remember his saying earlier, he was thinking maybe the Parker was not a Dendrocalamus, but after getting my immature Parker flowers, he tended to sway back toward a Dendrocalamus. He had to carefully take the flowers apart to get any info. That's why were really need a fully developed flower with the "pollen spiklets" visible. But none of my flowers have that yet. But I'm hoping they will eventually.

Dr. Stapleton asked my if I had some culm sheaths I could take a picture of. Of course, the culms sheaths from last Summer, 2016, had all been mowed over as they hit the ground. But I did find a couple culm sheaths that were wedged between 2 culms and had not fallen off.

And then I was asked about leaves. The leaves are all gone. But I did find one pot that had a few leaves on it.

I'll post the pictures I sent to Dr. Stapleton below. He said he did know of some bamboo researchers in Asia in the "bamboo patch" and he would see if he could possibly get any help from them.

My opinion here: Getting a bamboo identified by someone with bamboo credentials is difficult because these people are working for someone else who is paying them. So any help we get is much appreciated.

Culm sheath:
http://www.bambooweb.info/images/bamboo ... heath1.jpg


Leaf 1
http://www.bambooweb.info/images/bamboo ... c00006.jpg


Leaf 2 with flowers
http://www.bambooweb.info/images/bamboo ... c00004.jpg


Roy

[bambambooboo]

I didn't mean to imply at all that Robert would purposely or even carelessly mislabel a plant but as his operation grew, so did personnel and then of course anything is possible. In fact, what was so disheartening when it happened to me not by Robert but by the Miami guy, besides not knowing for all those years until it never grew into what I was waiting for, was that the guy sold out of his backyard so he pretty much had no one else to point a finger towards. And then he refused responsibility, an odd position, granted, as I didn't know until years later when it didn't develop the form I was expecting.

As to transpiration, I'd assume that more an issue of drought, though I don't know if it might also occur during flowering. I would say that while my one later division (so the weakest, likely) which looks like a corpse, has very healthy looking flowers (the one's I took pic of) so there must be enough water traveling these culms though it doesn't look possible. I was about to cut it down because it had lost all leaves until I saw the seeding on the others and then saw it on that one too.

My other clumps of other varieties--especially seabreez--which normally have droplets a plenty have had none during this driest of dry seasons.

I took a look at Parker just now, having had two days of light but finally of rain. About a 1/4th inch or less yesterday and maybe a 1/3rd to a half last night and with the Parker culm wetted, I can see now that it is not as perfectly green as I originally thought. There is some blackening, though very minor at this point.

I cut some of the adjacent seabreeze away to get a better shot at Parker's seeding crown and I think maybe I found a leaf leafing out. So either I'm being delusional or on the verge of hopeful.



I'm not certain that's what I'm looking at--it is quite high up--but I'll check over the next week or so and see if more unfurl, if that is indeed coming from this plant and not a neighboring boo.

[Roy]

I noticed that Jacqui Marlin posted this on the Hawaii Chapter of the American Bamboo Society Facebook page:

"A question for anyone here who has a Parker Giant: Is your bamboo flowering and dying? It seems this might be happening all over and I am curious if you have noticed it happening with yours?"

Jacqui Marlin: Hawaii Chapter of the American Bamboo Society Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/groups/47444478405/

Roy

[Roy]

The D. "Parker" is reminding me more and more each day of something akin to a mule. Across between a male donkey and a female horse, which produces a sterile animal. (A horse has 64 chromosomes and a donkey has 62) The D. "Parker" has made an attempt at reproduction, but just can't quite complete the process. I can find no one who is having success at getting any complete flowers or seeds. I'm beginning to think that it's the end of the D. Parker as it seems to be going extinct. No new leaves and we have been getting temps in the 90s F for quite a while, plus rain and high humidity. I think we are going to be playing "Taps" within the next month or 2.

[boonut]

One of mine has leaves on two branches only. The culms are still pretty green. But, it definitely seems to be going downhill. The second one still has about 1/3 the leaves of the normal plant and seems to be going downhill as well. Like you said... flowers disintegrating all over the ground.

Parker's Giant did incredibly well down here. So sad to see it go. I noticed that the D. Giganteus "Quail" looks like it bit the dust (at Quail). My clone is still doing fine... and no flowering.

Not giving up hope as long as there are leaves still on the Parker.

[cnibert]

My Parker just started flowering. This would be just its 2nd summer in the ground. I got it from Roger S. It still has a lot of leaves and is putting up 2 shoots right now.

Chad Nibert
Palm Bay, FL