Bambusa lako
Bambusa lako Widjaja, Reinwardtia 11 (2), 1997: 61.
Thai names: ไผ่ดำติมอร์ (phai dam timor), ไผ่ดำ (phai dam).
East Timor name: Au lako (Tétum / Tetun); "lako" = black.
Indonesian name: Bambu hitam timor.
English name: Timor Black Bamboo.
Distribution: THAILAND, widely cultivated. — EAST TIMOR (TIMOR-LESTE), in dry areas, native. — INDONESIA, cultivated. — MALAYSIA, cultivated. — Plants were introduced from Timor to Australia in 1970, and later to several other countries in the tropics and subtropics worldwide.
Local distribution: Occasionally found planted in the Chiang Mai area; seasonally offered for sale at Kham Thiang Market, Chiang Mai.
Culm size: Height 15 m, diameter 6 (9) cm.
Descriptions:
(1) "Shoots green to orange with yellowish stripes or purplish covered by scattered brown hairs. Culms 15 m high, straight; tips slightly pendulous; branches found at 1 m above the ground, 5-7 to a node; young culms with brown hairs, green with yellowish stripes, when old glabrous and purplish to black with green to yellowish stripes; internodes 25-35 by 3-8 cm diameter; walls 8-12 mm thick. Culm leaves deciduous, covered by black to brown hairs, sheath 10.4-11.5 cm long, up to 19.5 cm wide; auricles rounded and crisped to the blade's base, slightly curved outward, 4-8 mm high, bristles 7-11 mm long; ligule denticulate, 2-3 mm high, glabrous; blade erect, triangular, 2.5-4.7 by 1.5-4.0 cm, base broad, adaxially glabrous. Leaf blades 14.5-24.7 X 2.4-3.2 cm, slightly hairy beneath; auricles horn-like, 0.5-1 mm high, bristles 4 mm long; ligule entire to denticulate, 2 mm high. Inflorescences unknown." — E. A. Widjaja, 1997: 61 [#1352].
(2) "Habit: Perennial; caespitose. Rhizomes short; pachymorph. Culms erect; drooping at the tip; 1500 cm long; 30–80 mm diam.; woody. Culm-internodes terete; hollow; 25–35 cm long; purple and yellow; striped. Lateral branches dendroid. Branch complement several. Culm-sheaths deciduous; 10.4–11.5 cm long; 2 times as long as wide; hispid; with dark brown hairs, or black hairs; auriculate; with 4–8 mm high auricles; setose on shoulders; shoulders with 7–11 mm long hairs. Culm-sheath ligule 2–3 mm high; dentate. Culm-sheath blade triangular; erect; 2.3–4.5 cm long; 15–40 mm wide; glabrous on surface. Leaves cauline. Leaf-sheath oral hairs ciliate; 4 mm long. Leaf-sheath auricles falcate; 0.5–1 mm long. Ligule an eciliate membrane; 2 mm long; entire, or erose. Collar with external ligule. Leaf-blade base with a brief petiole-like connection to sheath. Leaf-blades lanceolate; 14.5–24.7 cm long; 24–32 mm wide. Leaf-blade surface puberulous; sparsely hairy; hairy abaxially. Leaf-blade margins scabrous. Leaf-blade apex acuminate. Inflorescence: Flowering specimens unknown." — Kew GrassBase, accessed 19 Oct. 2020 [#1335].
Images: Line drawing in E. A. Widjaja, 1997: 62, fig. 1 [#1352]. Photos in BambooWeb.info [#1340]; BS-0197; MrBamboo.com.au. Videos on YouTube 1, 2.
Uses: Culms for building purposes (roofs, walls) and furniture. Plants as solitary garden ornamentals.
Cultivation requirements: Easy growing in loamy moist soil with good drainage, exposed to half shade or full sun.
Specimens: BS-0197 [S3], BS-0197-1 [-] (living plants), Kham Thiang Market, Chiang Mai, received as "ไผ่ดำ (phai dam)", 2008 and 2009.
Characteristics: Rhizomes pachymorph, short-necked. Culms erect, forming a tight clump habit. Young shoots dull (dark or light) reddish brown with dull green apex, glabrous, emerge from late April to August. Culm-internodes terete, to 7.2 cm in diameter, glabrous, green at first, changing to dark brown or black with maturity, occasionally with a narrow green stripe, thin-walled (2nd internode 8 cm above the ground with wall 5 mm thick by 2.4–2.5 cm culm diameter). Culm-nodes not prominent or slightly prominent. Branches several, subequal; branching intravaginal. Culm-leaves deciduous. Culm-leaf sheaths straw-colored when dry. Foliage-leaves 6–9 per branchlet. Foliage-leaf sheaths light orange when young, dull straw-colored when dry, sparsely covered with short rigid hairs (light colored when young, dark brown when dry). Foliage-leaf auricles none; bristles none. Foliage-leaf ligule inconspicuous. Foliage-leaf blades medium-green, glabrous on both surfaces, slightly glossy above, medium-sized, usually 14–20 cm long and 20–23 mm wide.
Flowering records:
(1) Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia: No records are known regarding flowering.
(2) USA: Texas and Florida, Dec. 2008: Flowering reported by Steve Carter and Roy Rogers (plus 2 photos), in BambooWeb Forum "Bamboo Discussions".
(3) Australia: in Bamboo Society of Australia, Oct. 2008.
(4) USA: Florida: Doug Perry in Florida Bambooing, 6 Aug. 2009, providing photos of flowering Bambusa lako and citing Chris Stapleton's response; bambooweb.info, but no viable seeds were obtained.
(5) USA: California: A further record on Bambusa lako (flowering since July 2014) is for a single small plant grown in southern California (Drew, pers. comm., 15 Jan. 2015); no seeds were found.
(6) Australia: Queensland, Apr. 2017: Flowering reported by Barry O'Connell in Bamboo Society of Australia, on Facebook, 17 Apr. 2017, and shared in Bamboo Forum of India, on Facebook, 17 Apr. 2017.
(7) Thailand: Chiang Mai, 2017 → BS-0919 (see below).
(8) Singapore: A photo of a small flowering branch of Bambusa lako in Singapore was published by Lihua Jiang, on Facebook, 12 Aug. 2019.
Comments:
(1) Flowers are incompletely known, seeds are unknown.
(2) It has been argued that Bambusa lako could be a true species of Gigantochloa, based on a recent molecular study demonstrating the close relationship between Bambusa lako and Gigantochloa atroviolacea. However, the conventional placement in Bambusa will be maintained until further clarifying investigations have been executed, mainly a thorough examination of the inflorescence.
(3) It was recorded by Chris Stapleton (l.c.) that florets of Bambusa lako have free filaments, not fused as in Gigantochloa; hence, a future taxonomic transfer of Bambusa lako to the genus Gigantochloa (in the current circumscription) would be unlikely.
(4) There are no records that seeds have been produced (a last Internet search was carried out on 12 Apr. 2017).
(5) There are several commercial bamboo seed suppliers who have been offering "Bambusa lako" seeds through the Internet, including eBay and Amazon, at least since 2007 (still offered by a European seed supplier in 2015). I doubt that there is anybody who can provide proof of the source of those seeds, provide photos taken from those seeds, or provide characteristics of several-year-old plants raised from those seeds. As far as I know (from records, plus a single experience from a seed purchase), plants raised from "Bambusa lako" seeds have turned out to be ubiquitous Dendrocalamus strictus or Bambusa bambos.
Bambusa lako: Flowers — by courtesy of Doug Perry, Florida Bambooing
Bambusa lako, flowering in Queensland, Australia. Photo from Barry O'Connell's post in Bamboo Society of Australia — by courtesy of Barry O'Connell
Specimen: BS-0919 [BBG] (living plant), temporarily received from ธ. บ., Boonthammee Bamboo Garden, Hang Dong, Chiang Mai, 23 Apr. 2017, who in turn recently obtained this plant from a nursery in Prachin Buri, central Thailand.
Comments: The plant is small and potted, and, when received, had developed at an early stage a short single flowering branch with a few pseudospikelets. By mid-May 2017, a single anther was partly protruding from a floret; the anther was possibly yellowish, but the filaments were not seen.
Bambusa lako (BS-0919): A short flowering branch with pseudospikelets in an early stage of development (Photo taken at Bambusetum Baan Sammi, Doi Saket, Chiang Mai, 24 Apr. 2017)
Specimen: BS-0810-1 [BBG] (living plant), Hainan, southern China, cult., received from M. S., 9 Mar. 2015.