Gigantochloa verticillata

Synonyms: Bambusa verticillata Willd., Sp. Pl., ed. 4, 2 (1), 1799: 245; Bambusa pseudo­arundinacea Steud., Syn. Pl. Glumac. 1 (3), 1854: 330; Gigantochloa pseudoarundinacea (Steud.) Widjaja, Reinwardtia 10 (3), 1987: 305.

Thai name: No known records.

Indonesian names: bambu gombong; bambu andong.

Distribution: THAILAND (South), cultivated, possibly introduced, not native, perhaps locally naturalized. — INDONESIA, native: Java, Sumatra. — MALAYSIA (Peninsula and Borneo). — MYANMAR. — VIETNAM. — Widely cultivated in the tropics, e.g., CHINA (South), INDIA. — N. Bystriakova & al., Bamboo Biodiversity, 2003: map 36 (for Gigantochloa pseudoarundinacea) [#1342].

Culm size: Height 8–15 (30) m, diameter 7–10 (13) cm.

Descriptions:

(1) "… Rhizomes short; pachymorph. Culms erect; 700–1300 cm long; 50–130 mm diam.; woody; without nodal roots, or rooting from lower nodes. Culm-internodes terete; yellow, or light green; striped; distally pilose (sparsely above). Lateral branches dendroid. Culm-sheaths deciduous; auriculate; with 3–4 mm high auricles; with 17 mm wide auricles; setose on shoulders; shoulders with 3–5 mm long hairs. Culm-sheath ligule 3–5 mm high; dentate. Culm-sheath blade ovate; spreading, or reflexed. Leaf-sheath auricles falcate; 2 mm long. Ligule an eciliate membrane. Collar with external ligule. Leaf-blade base with a brief petiole-like connection to sheath. Leaf-blades lanceolate; 25 cm long; 25 mm wide … [flowers and seeds described]." — Kew GrassBase [#1335].

(2) "A densely tufted, sympodial bamboo, with the centre of the clump irregularly raised above ground. Culm 7–30 m tall, 5–13 cm in diameter, wall up to 2 cm thick; internodes up to 40–45(–60) cm long, green to yellow-green, yellow striped, initially with scattered appressed brown hairs on the upper parts, glabrous and smooth when older; lower nodes with verticillate aerial roots. Branches arising from all nodes above 2–3 m from the ground with one dominant branch at each node. Culm sheath truncate, 35 cm long or longer, deciduous, when young, dark green and papery at the margin and brown hairy becoming glabrous with age; blade ovate-oblong, acute at the apex, about as long as the sheath, hirsute at base, spreading to reflexed; ligule up to 5 mm long, dentate, fine hairy at top; auricles up to 4 mm tall and 17 mm long in lateral extent, with a variable low and wavy rim, when young with up to 5 mm long bristles. Young shoots yellow-green, flushed with orange on the sheath apices and green striped, with appressed, acute, brown to golden-brown hairs. Leaf blade lanceolate, 22–25 cm × 2.5–5 cm, glabrous or finely hairy at lower surface; lower sheaths with slightly emarginate collar-like callus; ligule up to 2 mm long, irregularly toothed with fine hairs; auricles firm, raised at the end up to 1 mm and joined to the ligule … [flowers described] … Caryopsis unknown." — E. A. Widjaja in S. Dransfield & E. A. Widjaja (eds.), Plant Resources of South-East Asia No. 7, Bamboos, 1995: p. 116–118, fig., as "Gigantochloa pseudoarundinacea" [#1226].

(3) E. A. Widjaja, Revis. Malesian Gigantochloa, 1987: p. 305-311, fig. 1-2, as "Gigantochloa pseudoarundinacea" [#1224].

(4) K. K. Seethalakshmi & al., Bamboos of India, 1998: p. 161 [#1062].

(5) E. A. Widjaja, Spect. Indones. Bamboos, 2019: p. 98-101 [#1279].

Images: Line drawing in J. S. Gamble, Bambuseae Brit. India, 1896: pl. 52, as "Gigantochloa verticillata" [#1230]. Photos in AsianFlora [#1332]; E. A. Widjaja, l.c., 2019 (habit, culms, young shoots.

Uses: Shoots for food; culms for construction, widely used as a building material, for water pipes, furniture, household utensils, chopsticks and toothpicks, and musical instruments; plants for landscaping.

Characteristics (BS-0479, BS-0506): Rhizome pachymorph. Culms erect, straight. Young shoots emerge from May to July. Culm-internodes 30–40 (48) cm long, mid to dark green, with light green to yellowish narrow stripes, initially with short pale irritant fuzz on the upper part, glabrous and smooth on the lower part, becoming glabrous and rough on the upper part with age; thick-walled (wall 1.8 cm of the 6th internode with 4.9 cm in diameter, 1.7 m above the ground, in BS-0479). Culm-nodes not prominent; basal nodes with aerial roots. Branch-buds solitary, the lowest 2–3 nodes usually without buds. Branches several or many, the central one somewhat dominant; the basal and lower culms unbranched; branching intravaginal. Culm-leaves late deciduous. Culm-leaf sheath half as long as the internode or slightly shorter; green and with stripes when young, dark green or purplish-green towards margins when young, light straw-colored when dry; covered with short appressed white hairs, the hairs soon becoming medium brown and dark brown with age, caducous and almost glabrous when old; margins eciliate or pale ciliate when young; apex flat-rounded to truncate. Culm-leaf auricles rim-like, low, somewhat wavy, the rims ending in slightly higher, almost ovate lobes but not reaching the sheath margin; initially with a few pale early deciduous bristles. Culm-leaf ligule 1–2 mm high, irregularly denticulate, the tips with early caducous fimbriae. Culm-leaf blade reflexed on the lower culm, spreading on the mid-culm and upper culm, triangular on the basal culm, lanceolate above, early caducous. Foliage-leaves mid-green to dark green, (6) 8–10 (13) per branchlet. Foliage-leaf sheath keeled, light green, with a few pale short hairs becoming light brown, otherwise glabrous. Foliage-leaf auricles inconspicuous low entire rims raised at the ends; oral setae none. Foliage-leaf ligule short, entire or denticulate. Foliage-leaf blades 25–42 × 4–6 (7) cm, lanceolate, glabrous on both surfaces, light bluish-green beneath; margins antrorsely scabrous; base rounded to cuneate; apex attenuate; midrib proximally prominent on both surfaces, yellowish green beneath; pseudopetiole 4–10 mm long. Flowers and seeds are unknown.

Images: Photos in BambooLand (culms, habit); BambooGrove (culm, leaves).

Cultivation requirements: Part shade to full sun, rich loamy soil, normal moisture-retentive to moist with good drainage. Frost resistant to −2 °C.

Comments:

(1) Plants of BS-0506 are no longer in cultivation at Bambusetum Baan Sammi but were transplanted to Boonthammee Bamboo Garden.

(2) Culm height 30 m, diameter 12 cm, according to BambooLand and BambooGrove.

(3) I can not find differences in the characteristics between the plants from Singapore (BS-0479) and Australia (BS-0506). There is no description for the cultivar name 'Gombong Batu', and probably this name was used as a common Indonesian or Javanese name for this bamboo. "Gombong" could refer to the city of the same name in southern Central Java, and "Batu" could mean "artificial jewel" or "artificial diamond".