Phyllostachys vivax?

[Kostas]

Hello!

A friend gifted me a culm base division he had sitting around as a result of the wind uprooting an adult culm. He had bought this bamboo in a bunch of P. aurea and made sure to get it as he knew right from them it was something different. He thinks its a P. vivax but can't be sure as he is not too much into IDing plants(bored to bother with that ). So far my search agrees with P. vivax but I have not seen emerging new culms as it's the wrong season. I took some pictures of his grove which is very nice and open,with huge culms and few in number,growing somewhat in groups. Seems like a great species which can grow huge and thick without the need to have many culms or spread excessively to attain size. Should fit great in my rainforest garden,allowing culms to grow only where they don't bother anything else.
Here are the pictures!


These have some lower brunches pruned


Culms,the biggest ones have a diameter upwards of 6-7cm and the mat is young








What do you think it is?

Here are some photos of my division as well








Will this division work ok? It's a wind uprooted culm base with a 30-40cm diameter healthy root mass. I also keep its culm filled with water on the topmost cut section as I read it helps(?)

How thick first culms should I expect,how soon and what species is it? My friend told me to expect 50cm to 1m tall new growth very soon.

Thank you very much in advance!

[dependable]

It could be vivax, by the look of it. Might be something else similar.

If new division you have has any culm buds on its rhizomes, you should get some new shoots probably next spring, although it may send up a whip shoot sooner. In any case, shoots will be a lot smaller than cut of culm for several years.

[oobmab]

I have something that I first thought was vivax, but am now pretty sure is viridiglaucescens. This variety seems to be popular and pervasive in Europe.

I have planted approx. 35 clumps like you have (with chopped off culm), and received survival shoots on 50% of 25 yellow groove plantings (from 3mm to 2 cm thick culms, from 1 m to 5m tall); and survival shoots on 90% of 10 praecox (supposedly) plantings (mostly 3 mm culms approx. 1.3m tall).

Hopefully, you will have 100% success.

The striated internodes in your pictures make me think possibly phy. elegans, which apparently can be confused with viridiglaucescens. Do you know if the undersides of the leaves are hairy? Do the internodes have a striated texture?

[Tarzanus]

A bit thick culm walls for Vivax, but the cut was made quite low on the culm, so it might not be ruled out. I'd say it's something else anyway.

Next spring with emerging shoots you'll almost certainly get the needed info, before that, we can only guess. If there are yellow stripes on the internodes - I think I've noticed some on your photos, it might also be Phyllostachys iridescens.

If it's not growing in congested clumps, I'd rule out viridiglaucescens, because the grove I know in the vicinity is totally congested and forms impenetrable jungle. Don't know iridescens well enough to know how it grows, but it does seem to have the thin yellow stripes on the internodes.

[JWH]

It looks almost identical to my Iridescens.

[Kostas]

Thank you very much for your replies!

Some of the culms do have thin yellow stripes/streaks as are visible in the photos. The striated texture is very slight and the culms feel mostly smooth at the internodes. The leaf undersides are more glaucous/silvery looking than the glabrous looking upper sides of the leafs if I remember right and I am not mixing it up with another of my friend's bamboo.
Here is a photo of juvenile shoots with leafs from a division of it(as far as I remember)


The clump is nice and open,with the culms growing in groups in the more favorable spots. I will surely take photos and post during the next shooting season or if my friend finds his photos of the new shoots.
Phyllostachys iridescence seems more impressive and bigger than P. vivax from what I see,niiice I really like its growing habit and big culms whichever species it turns out to be but very much want to know its correct ID!

Glad to here good success rates with cut culm divisions! I didn't see any rhizome,just a thick and impenetrable root mass. Hope there are buds somewhere in there and it shoots soon! It's already been 3 weeks since it got uprooted from the wind and 2 weeks since it was cut free from the roots that held it leaning. I don't mind the size of the first shoots,I got a rich soil,shallow water table,lots of rain and lots of heat that should do wonders growing it up fast
I currently have it temporarily placed on the ground with soil mounded around and a little over the root mass till I figured out what to do with it. Now the plan is to move it to another garden of mine 300km away with better climate and where I want it to grow and spread sparsely in my rainforest garden with huge culms eventually but relatively few in number(unwanted new shoots harvested on shooting season),just like I saw it at my friends garden. Shall I move it there(by pulling it out) in a month I will be doing the trip or shall I live it where it is till is shoots and then move it once the shoots harden or just prior to winter?(final location is zone 9b/10a so winter will still be growing season for it there,current one 8b/9a and I am not sure how good it is to pass the winter mounted like that).

Thank you very much in advance!

[oobmab]

The leaf undersides are more glaucous/silvery looking than the glabrous looking upper sides of the leafs if I remember right and I am not mixing it up with another of my friend's bamboo.

Glaucous means bluish-green and glabrous means not hairy. Are the leaf undersides hairy (pubescent) or smooth (glabrous)?

[Kostas]

I am not sure what causes this whitish color on the leaf undersides of this bamboo to tell if they are pubescent or not. It could be wax or it could be hairs,I would need to see the plant again from close for that to be 100% sure except if its known what causes glaucous undersides on bamboo in general. However,i would say that glaucousness does imply the presence of hair mostly so I would say the undersides do are pubescent.

Btw,I do know what these words mean as they are Greek in origin,which makes it easier, and I have also studied botany
Glaucous means whitish.

[Nicholas]

It looks almost identical to my Iridescens.

I would say it is either Iridescens or Praecox violascens.
I've also got a grove near me that is either of the above.
Praecox shoots early so that is one way to tell them apart. From the images on the internet I'm having a hard time separating the two species.

[Kostas]

Some very interesting species that it could be! From the photos,I don't think is praecox violascens as that species had a violet tinge on the lower part of the internodes while my friend's doesn't at all as far as I remember. I wish it would shoot now to get done with the ID

[Nicholas]

Some very interesting species that it could be! From the photos,I don't think is praecox violascens as that species had a violet tinge on the lower part of the internodes while my friend's doesn't at all as far as I remember. I wish it would shoot now to get done with the ID

Praecox violascens does not have to be violet. I've tried long and hard to find good images for making an id.
Both iridescens and violascens have the typical yellow streaks on internodes you also see on your friend's bamboo.
On both bamboos these streaks can turn purple/brown with age, but generally violascens will have more colouring.

I think you will have to wait until shooting season to get a good chance at making an id.

[edit]

Here are links to both species (german). In the description for iridescens it even says that some places erroneously sold them as violascens.

http://www.bambus-lexikon.de/phyllostac ... cens0.html
http://www.bambus-lexikon.de/phyllostac ... scens.html

[/edit]

[Kostas]

Thank you Nicholas,i will wait till i have a photo of a new shoot

[needmore]

Dulcis can also have yellow stripes such as that, as can praecox.

[Nicholas]

Dulcis can also have yellow stripes such as that, as can praecox.

Do you know if the stripes on Dulcis also turn brown/purple?
From the images posted by Kostas it appears some of the culms have those which is why I am leaning more towards the mentioned species.


@Kostas

Try to look at shoots from your friend's plant. Divisions with small shoots will tend to be atypical looking.
At least that is my experience with smaller divisions. Some of the typical characteristics of shoots only appear once they are quite sizeable.

[needmore]

I think they tend to stay yellow, the parent grove of mine has them but mine don't live long enough for them to develop.