Bambusa textilis

Specimen: BS-0522 [BBG] (living plant), received from cultivated stock from the USA, Aug. 2010.

Characteristics: Culms tight, erect, bending above, tops slightly drooping, unbranched on the lower culm. Culm-internodes initially thinly white powdery, more or less stiffly pale brown hairy, thin-walled. Culm-leaf sheaths with stiff brown hairs on the basal part. Culm-leaf auricles unequal. Culm-leaf blade erect. Foliage-leaf blades glabrous above, densely pubescent beneath.

Specimen: BS-0443 [W4] (living plant), received from cultivated stock from the USA, Jan. 2010.

Characteristics: Culms said to grow taller, up to 15 m tall [but the plant at Bambusetum Baan Sammi has not yet reached that height by Sep. 2023], the lower half of the culm unbranched. Young shoots emerge from May(?) to September. Culm-internodes to 78 cm long, copiously covered with white powder when young, which contributes to a prominent blue appearance, diameter to 5 cm, thick-walled on the lower culm, relatively thin-walled on the mid-culm. Branch-buds solitary, without buds on the lower culm, the first bud on the 7th or 8th node 3–4 m above the ground. Branches short, thin, subequal, the central one slightly dominant.

Uses: Plants as garden ornamentals and for screening.

Specimen: BS-0616 [N4] (living plant), received from ธ. ล. as "ไป๋สินชุบ (pai sin chup)", 14 Jan. 2011, from plants cultivated in Trang Province, southern Thailand. It was reported that the Trang plants were introduced from Penang, Malaysia, around 2008, which in turn were introduced to Malaysia from cultivated plants from China around 2006.

Comments: Not the slightest difference in characteristics from BS-0444 was found.

Specimen: BS-0444 [N4] (living plant), received from cultivated stock from the USA, Jan. 2010.

Characteristics: Habit tight caespitose. Rhizome pachymorph, short. Culms straight, erect, slightly bending outwards above, to about 12 m tall, or a little taller (→ table with culm size dimensions). Young shoots conical, emerge from June/July to September. Culm-internodes terete, 50–60 cm long, mid-green, initially with more or less long-lasting white farina and scattered with caducous short soft pale hairs, otherwise glabrous; diameter 4–5 (5.2) cm; walls thin. Culm-nodes glabrous, not prominent; with a white sericeous ring below the sheath scar when young; aerial roots none. Branch-buds solitary, the nodes of the basal and lower mature culms without buds. Branches many, small, the central one slightly dominant, to 5 mm in diameter, other branches subequal, 0.5–2.5 mm in diameter, short, 0.6–1.6 m long; unbranched on the basal and lower mature culms; branching usually intravaginal, occasionally extravaginal; rebranching. Culm-leaves deciduous, thinly farinose when young, evenly light straw-colored when dry. Culm-leaf sheath 28–30 cm wide at the base, 24–29 cm high, coriaceous, rigid, green to orange-green when young, abaxially scattered short pale hairy when young, basally stiffly black strigose when mature; apex broadly arched, about 10–12 cm wide, slightly slanted and asymmetrical. Culm-leaf auricles unequal, mid-brown to greenish brown when young, the larger one oblong and slightly slanted, about 2 × 0.5 cm, the smaller one oblong and not slanted, about 1 × 0.3 cm, the end of both auricles rounded, not decurrent; bristles pale, slender, straight to undulate, about 0.4–1 cm long. Culm-leaf ligule about 2 mm high, denticulate. Culm-leaf blade caducous, thickly papery, orange-green when young, erect; broad triangular with rounded basal edges (on the basal and lower culm, lanceolate towards the upper culm), the junction with the sheath about 8.5 cm wide, about 15 cm long (1/2 to 2/3 as long as the sheath); glabrous on both surfaces. Foliage-leaves 5–8 (13) per branchlet. Foliage-leaf sheaths glabrous. Foliage-leaf auricles conspicuous lobes, pale bristly. Foliage-leaf ligule inconspicuous. Foliage-leaf blades soft, linear-lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, (6) 10–14 (19) × 1.0–1.7 cm, glabrous on both surfaces, glossy dark green above, dull bluish green beneath; base rounded to wedge-shaped; apex attenuate; margins antrorsely scaberulous; midrib proximally slightly prominent beneath; pseudopetiole 1–2 mm long.

Comments: Previously misidentified as Bambusa mutabilis McClure, and as Bambusa textilis var. fusca McClure.

Specimen: BS-0445 [E4] (living plant), received from cultivated stock from the USA, Jan. 2010.

Characteristics: Habit was recorded to be of a more open clump; however, this cannot be confirmed (Apr. 2024). Culm-internodes dark green. Branches short.

Uses: Plants as garden ornamentals.

Specimen: BS-0486 [BBG] (living plant), received from cultivated stock from Australia, June 2010.

Characteristics: Culm-internodes glabrous(?). Culm-leaf sheaths with brown hairs.

Uses: Plants as garden ornamentals and for screening.

Comments:

(1) Identification of this bamboo is not confirmed; it might be true Bambusa pachinensis var. hirsutissima (Odash.) W. C. Lin.

(2) "… Among Chinese bamboos, [Bambusa laxa K. M. Wong] bears superficial resemblance to McClure's B. textilis var. fusca (which is not necessarily conspecific with his B. textilis var. textilis, both of which were described without flowers). B. textilis var. textilis has pale hairs on the culm internodes (McClure 1940) … B. textilis var. fusca has glabrous culm internodes and is bigger and more erect in habit, although the culm sheaths are superficially similar to those of B. laxa." (K. M. Wong, 1993: p. 39 [1275]).

(3) In many publications, the epithet "fusca" (Latin: brown) is misspelled as "fasca".