Would like an ID on this timber bamboo

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kudzu9
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Location: Greater Seattle, WA, area; Zone 8. Summers:mainly 60's-70's. Winters are rainy, but above freezing except for a few 15 deg F days; 1-2 days of snow max.

Would like an ID on this timber bamboo

Post by kudzu9 »

About 10 years ago I was doing a garden exchange and got a chunk of rootball with about a 2' pruned-off culm sticking out of it. The person I got it from did not know the species and only said that it was a fast growing timber bamboo. It's moderately aggressive so I have it surrounded by barrier. It's now about 25' feet high and has decent size culms. It's evergreen in my mild Zone 8 area of the Pacific NW. It seems to have typical Phyllostachys branching. Here are some pictures:
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needmore
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Re: Would like an ID on this timber bamboo

Post by needmore »

Gil, Greetings, have you eliminated Phy vivax as a candidate?
Brad Salmon, zone 12B Kea'au, HI
http://www.needmorebamboo.com
kudzu9
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Re: Would like an ID on this timber bamboo

Post by kudzu9 »

Brad-
Not vivax... I should’ve mentioned that it has a nice, thick wall, and I have no problem with breakage when we have the occasional snow.
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needmore
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Re: Would like an ID on this timber bamboo

Post by needmore »

It has that look sort of shared by vivax, bambusoides, dulcis, and shanghai 3. My S3 tends to hang onto the white ring below the node and your does not. I assume that you have considered and eliminated bambusoides, although S3 is thought to be a form of dulcis, you might want to pull at that thread until it unravels.

Phy viridis shoots also tend in that direction but that is easy to eliminate/confirm, the culms are bumpy on the uprub.
Brad Salmon, zone 12B Kea'au, HI
http://www.needmorebamboo.com
kudzu9
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Re: Would like an ID on this timber bamboo

Post by kudzu9 »

I have dulcis, and it's not that. I also have Ph. viridis and it's a deeper green than the mystery bamboo, and the culms of my viridis are nowhere near as large in diameter. Bambusoides may be a possibility.
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Re: Would like an ID on this timber bamboo

Post by dependable »

Looks like the vivax shoots I have, both regular and aureocaulis.

I'm not sure vivax completely deserves its reputation for being weak and thin walled. It was that way indeed for the first ten years or so, but the culms coming up now are markedly stronger and thicker. We get snow and wind here, now the vivax seems at least as strong as the P aureosulcata grove next to it.

If the culm walls are very thick, and the color of you picture is off, P nuda does have somewhat similar blotches on culm sheaths. I have attached a recent picture of each, (date stamp is incorrect), not that these are great shots either. The tassels on top of shoot in your picture look more like vivax too.
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P nuda
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kudzu9
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Re: Would like an ID on this timber bamboo

Post by kudzu9 »

This is the wall thickness, so I don’t think it’s vivax:
[attachment=0]1A7EFD70-88EB-42DF-916D-0A2E30A05228.jpeg[/attachment]
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dependable
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Re: Would like an ID on this timber bamboo

Post by dependable »

Below is a picture near base of vivax culm cut last winter due to toppling since roots were up against the barrier. Might not be as thick what you have, but proof they can be thicker and stronger than reputation once well established. I don't fertilize them any more, which might be a factor too. Like I stated before, they were weak and prone to cracking for first decade. They made it to 50ft with 3 inch culm width, before being killed to ground in a freeze event, and were prone to cracking in cold wind with a dramatic pop sound. They seem to be coming up a second time around much stronger, and some of this years culms are almost to pre freeze size.

Nuda is always thick though. I'll Take a cross section of one of these later today and see how thick they are these days, got to get back to work now.
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kudzu9
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Re: Would like an ID on this timber bamboo

Post by kudzu9 »

dependable- You're starting to soften me up a bit in your view that it could be vivax: in your photo, the proportion of wall thickness to culm diameter is quite similar to the last photo I posted. However, the leaf tips in your photo are much more crinkly than in mine.
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Re: Would like an ID on this timber bamboo

Post by dependable »

Those leaf tips in picture are on a culm in thriving part of grove, it's diameter around 2.5 inches, just the one I had a picture of. The runners producing newer smaller culms have similar leaf tips to your picture.
kudzu9
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Re: Would like an ID on this timber bamboo

Post by kudzu9 »

dependable- Thanks
kudzu9
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Re: Would like an ID on this timber bamboo

Post by kudzu9 »

dependable- Thanks
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