Bambusa beecheyana
Bambusa beecheyana Munro, Trans. Linn. Soc. London 26 (1), 1868: 108.
Synonyms: Sinocalamus beecheyanus (Munro) McClure; Dendrocalamopsis beecheyana (Munro) Keng f.; Neosinocalamus beecheyanus (Munro) Keng f. & T. H. Wen.
Thai names: ไผ่บีเชย์ (phai biche); ไผ่บีเซย์ (phai bise).
Chinese name: 吊丝球竹 (diao si qiu zhu).
English name: Beechey Bamboo.
Distribution: THAILAND: Genuine Bambusa beecheyana was introduced in Thailand in 2012 and has since been cultivated but is still rare. Most likely, the first introduction of this species occurred much earlier, although plants from an early introduction could not be found in cultivation in Thailand. — CHINA (South): Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan; native.
Descriptions:
(1) "Culms to 16 m, 9–10 cm in diam., apically pendulous or long pendulous; internodes 34–41 cm, initially thickly white powdery, sparsely pubescent; wall 1.5–2 cm thick; nodes flat. Branches several, 1–3 dominant. Culm sheaths deciduous, leathery, initially with uneven, dark brown, spinous hairs; auricles small at lower nodes, larger at distal nodes; oral setae present or absent; ligule 2–4 mm, ciliate; blade recurved, triangular, base 1/2–4/5 as wide as sheath apex, adaxially hirtellous. Leaf sheaths initially hirtellous; ligule truncate, 0.5–1 mm; auricles absent or minute; oral setae scarce or absent; blade oblong-lanceolate, 11–28 × 1.5–3.5 cm. … [flowers described]. Caryopsis unknown. New shoots Jun–Jul, fl. Sep–Dec." — Flora of China [#1303].
(2) "… caespitose. Rhizomes short; pachymorph. Culms erect; 600 cm long; woody; without nodal roots. Culm-internodes terete; hollow. Lateral branches dendroid. Culm-sheaths 26–30 cm long; glabrous. Culm-sheath ligule 4 mm high; ciliate. Culm-sheath blade ovate; 6 cm long; 30 mm wide; acuminate. Leaves cauline. Leaf-sheaths striately veined; glabrous on surface. Leaf-sheath oral hairs lacking. Ligule an eciliate membrane. Collar with external ligule. Leaf-blade base broadly rounded; with a brief petiole-like connection to sheath; petiole pubescent. Leaf-blades lanceolate, or oblong; 15–25 cm long; 20–50 mm wide. Leaf-blade venation with distinct cross veins. Leaf-blade margins scabrous. Leaf-blade apex attenuate. … [flowers described]." — Kew GrassBase [#1335].
Images: Line drawing in Flora of China [#1303]. Photos in AsianFlora (habit) [#1332]; plantjdx (culms, nodes, shoots, culm sheath) [#1345] (perhaps these photos show Bambusa grandis, not B. beecheyana); ABSsocal (habit); BambooWeb.info [#1340]; BambooCraft.net (varieties not kept apart) [#1341].
Uses: Shoots for food (of delicate-bitter taste), a major species for commercial shoot production in southern China (yield 20–30 tonnes annually per hectare, according to W. Y. Hsiung); culms used for construction.
Cultivation requirements: Easy and fast-growing, full sun, thrives well in heavy moist soil with good drainage.
Comments:
(1) What has been claimed to be Bambusa beecheyana under the Thai names ไผ่บีเชย์ (phai biche), ไผ่กิมซุง (phai kim sung), and later ไผ่ตงลืมแล้ง (phai tong luem laeng) is a different species of Bambusa with thorns, but in the overall vegetative characteristics Bambusa beecheyana (which has no thorns) very similar.
(2) In the U.S.A., older generations of Bambusa beecheyana var. beecheyana are recorded to be infected by the Bamboo Mosaic Potex Virus, whereas var. pubescens is not.
Specimen: BS-0069 [BBG] (living plant), received by C. S. as "Bambusa beecheyana" from the cultivated stock of a nursery in Yunnan, China, 24 June 2012.
Comments:
(1) The plant was claimed to be true Bambusa beecheyana. It does not develop thorns. The characteristics were checked on a mature plant, and I am convinced it is correctly identified as Bambusa beecheyana.
(2) BS-0069 is not infected by the Bamboo Mosaic Potex Virus.
Bambusa beecheyana var. pubescens (P. F. Li) W. C. Lin, 1964: 1.
Synonyms: Sinocalamus beecheyanus var. pubescens P. F. Li; Sinocalamus pubescens (P. F. Li) Keng f.; Dendrocalamopsis beecheyana var. pubescens (P. F. Li) Keng f.; Neosinocalamus beecheyanus var. pubescens (P. F. Li) Keng f. & T. H. Wen.
Thai name: No known records.
Chinese name: 大头典竹 (da tou dian zhu).
Distribution: THAILAND: There are no known records of its introduction in Thailand. — CHINA (South): Guangdong, native; introduced from mainland China into Taiwan in early times.
Description: Flora of China [#1303]. Flora of Taiwan [#1106].
Images: Line drawing in Flora of China [#1303]. Photos in BambooWeb.info [#1340].
Characteristics: Culms apically pendulous. Branches from the base up. Culm-internodes more pubescent and with a brown pubescent ring below the nodes. Foliage-leaf blades a little harder.
Uses: Shoots for food.
Comments:
(1) Flowers are known, seeds unknown.
(2) Bambusa beecheyana var. pubescens is preferably planted in the U.S.A.; there are no reports of its infection by the Bamboo Mosaic Potex Virus.
Bambusa beecheyana 'Parker's Giant'
Synonym: Dendrocalamus sp. 'Parker's Giant'.
Thai name: No known records.
English names: Parker's Giant Bamboo; Parker's Hawaiian Giant Bamboo. The English name refers to Jim Parker who discovered this bamboo in Pahoa, Hawaii.
Distribution: THAILAND: Imported from the USA into Thailand in 2016, where the plant flowered in 2018 and died soon thereafter. No other introductions are known. — USA: First recorded in cultivation in Hawaii, now rarely cultivated elsewhere in the southern mainland of the USA.
Characteristics: Culms taller and thicker in ultimate size, height 25 m, diameter 30.5 cm; culm-internodes very thick-walled; foliage-leaves large.
Images: Photos in BambooWeb.info [#1340]; Bountiful Earth; Tropical Bamboo;
Uses: Culms for construction. Young shoots (sweet, delicious) for food. Plants for landscaping and biomass production.
Cultivation requirements: Easy and fast-growing; in full sun, soil sandy loam to clay loam, moisture-retentive to moist with good drainage. Frost-resistant to –3 (–4) °C. Also recorded as being resistant to storms and floods.
Comments:
(1) There have been reports of seedless flowering at various locations in the USA in 2018.
(2) Giant Parker's Bamboo is known not to be infected by the Bamboo Mosaic Potex Virus (C. S. pers. comm., 29 Nov. 2015).
(3) There is no proof that 'Parker's Giant' was properly attributed to the species Bambusa beecheyana. It was assumed that 'Parker's Giant' could be a variety of Bambusa oldhamii from the USA.
Specimen: BS-0931 [†] (living plant, flowered and died), received at Boonthammee Bamboo Garden, Hang Dong, Chiang Mai, from C. S. about 2016, who obtained the plant from the cultivated stock of Tropical Bamboo Nursery in Florida, USA, as "Dendrocalamus 'Parker Giant'".
Comments:
(1) The small plant started sporadic flowering shortly after arriving at Boonthammee Bamboo Garden, and was then transferred to Bambusetum Baan Sammi, Doi Saket, Chiang Mai, in June 2018, for observation. The plant turned to gregarious flowering, lost all leaves, and died in January 2019.
(2) Neither anthers nor stigmas protruded from the spikelets of the flowering plant, and no seeds were found.
(3) Sporadic flowering of Bambusa oldhamii in the USA in 2018 has been recorded (C. S., pers. comm., Facebook, 27 July 2018). To prove the identity of 'Parker's Giant', it should be compared to the landscape clone of Bambusa oldhamii, which is commonly cultivated in the southern parts of the USA. However, no culm-leaves were left or developed when the plant BS-0931 was received at Bambusetum Baan Sammi; therefore, identification was not attempted.
Bambusa beecheyana hort. siam., not Bambusa beecheyana Munro
Thai names: ไผ่กิมซุง (phai kim sung), ไผ่กิมซุ่ง (phai kim sung), ไผ่ลืมแล้ง (phai luem laeng), ไผ่ตงลืมแล้ง (phai tong luem laeng). The name, กิมซุ่ง (kim sung), is a phonetic transcription from Chinese 金笋 (jin sun) which translates as "golden bamboo shoot". The name, ลืมแล้ง (luem laeng), refers to the pronounced drought resistance of this species: ลืม (luem) = forget, แล้ง (laeng) = drought.
Distribution: THAILAND: ไผ่กิมซุง (phai kim sung) was introduced from China into Thailand by an agricultural company from Sai Yok District, Kanchanaburi Province, in 2004, and has become popular for shoot production (Phattharaphon, 2009); mainly distributed in Central Thailand.
Culm size: Height 18 m, diameter 11 cm.
Uses: Young shoots for food; culms for making charcoal and chopsticks.
ไผ่กิมซุง (phai kim sung), BS-0188: Culms (left), new shoot (center), thorny branches (right)
Specimens: BS-0188 [-], received as "ไผ่กิมซุ่ง" (phai kim sung) from Kham Thiang Market, Chiang Mai, 15 Oct. 2008; BS-0188-1 [-], received as "ไผ่กิมซุ่ง" (phai kim sung) by ท. from cultivated stock in Lop Buri, 7 Dec. 2009; BS-0188-2 [-], received as "ไผ่กิมซุ่ง" (phai kim sung) from a nursery in Chiang Mai, July 2009.
Characteristics:
(1) Habit caespitose, tight clumper. Rhizomes pachymorph, short. Culms erect, upright, not straight, branched from the basal nodes up. Young shoots green, glabrous, emerge late (from late June, and still in November). Culm-internodes to 32 cm long, mid-green when young, yellowish-green when old, glabrous, initially thinly white-waxy, to 11 cm in diameter, thick-walled (about 3 cm at the base, about 1.5 cm at 1.8 m height). Culm-nodes glabrous, without aerial roots on the basal culm, with tough thorns (branches specialized into leafless, unbranched and branched thorns) on the lower culm and the lower branches, nodal ridge slightly prominent on thin culms, sheath scar slightly prominent and short-hairy on thicker culms. Branch-buds solitary, large, broad. Branches 3 on the lower culm, several on the upper culm, the central one slightly dominant. Culm-leaves deciduous. Culm-leaf sheaths leathery, glabrous, light green to yellowish green when young, fading to dull brownish when dry, margin fimbriate when young. Culm-leaf auricles and oral hairs lacking. Culm-leaf ligule conspicuous, 4–7 mm high, minutely fringed when young, subentire and deeply cleft when dry. Culm-leaf blade reflexed, green when young. Foliage-leaves 9–10 per branchlet. Foliage-leaf sheaths light orange, smooth, glabrous. Foliage-leaf auricles inconspicuous or lacking; oral hairs few, long, whitish, soon caducous. Foliage-leaf ligule short. Foliage-leaf blades mid-green, glabrous on both surfaces, medium-sized, usually 12–24 cm long and 2–3 cm wide, margins antrorsely scabrous; pseudopetiole 2–3 mm long.
(2) A one-year-old 16.7 m long culm in a 7-year-old clump was cut: the 1st internode above the ground was 20 cm long, 11 cm in diameter, wall 4 cm thick; the internode between the 9th and 10th node, 2.0 m above the ground, 10 cm in diameter, wall 1.9 cm thick.
ไผ่กิมซุง (phai kim sung), BS-0188: Upper part of a culm leaf, abaxial view (left), adaxial view (right)
Uses: Shoots for food; plants very suitable for biomass production. Shoots are delicious but have a slightly bitter taste, which is appreciated more by Chinese and Vietnamese people than Thais. Shoots emerge late; hence, commercial shoot production in Thailand is done mainly because the shoots can be marketed beyond the main shoot marketing season, though maintenance of a plantation is more difficult than with other species. Decaying culms and culm-leaves could be a good substrate material for the cultivation of edible mushrooms (photos BS-0188_093, 094). Culms may not be well-suited for construction purposes, as they grow usually not straight, some or several internodes can tear longitudinally during growth (photos BS-0188_103 … 106), individual culms in a clump can twist, splinter, and bend down but not break off (photos BS-0188_083, 084), and cut culms rot quickly.
Cultivation requirements: Easy and fast-growing, full sun, thrives well in heavy moisture-retentive soil with good drainage; mature plants can resist without harm a long drought period of several months. The optimal clump spacing for shoot production plantation is 4 × 4 m. Not only is this species particularly drought-tolerant, but it has also proven to be extremely flood-tolerant; cf. S. Sungkaew & A. Teerawatananon, 2017: 499-503 [#1393].
Provisional identification: ไผ่กิมซุง (phai kim sung) was recorded as Bambusa beecheyana (Phattharaphon, 2009), but this identification seems to be doubtful, and phai kim sung might represent a different species of Bambusa subg. Bambusa. Phai kim sung is similar to Bambusa beecheyana in overall appearance but differs from the latter in having initially thinly white powdery and glabrous culm internodes, thorny culm nodes and branch nodes, glabrous culm sheaths without auricles, and a higher culm sheath ligule. I could not find a description of any species of Bambusa in the Flora of China that matches the characteristics of phai kim sung. The main difference between phai kim sung and Bambusa beecheyana is the presence of thorns (in juvenile as well as mature plants) in the former, whereas no records or descriptions are known that claim the presence of thorns in Bambusa beecheyana.
Comments:
(1) Flowers and seeds of ไผ่กิมซุง (phai kim sung) from Thailand are unknown.
(2) Plants in Thailand under the names ไผ่ลืมแล้ง (phai luem laeng) or ไผ่ตงลืมแล้ง (phai tong luem laeng) represent the same species as ไผ่กิมซุง (phai kim sung), and differences at cultivar level could not be detected; hence, the former name might have been created for marketing purposes only.