Dendrocalamus pachycladus
Dendrocalamus pachycladus Hsueh, D. Z. Li & C. M. Hui, Res. Bamb. Nujiang, 1994: 34.
Thai name: No known records.
Chinese name: 江竹 (jiāng zhú), translated as "river bamboo".
Distribution: THAILAND: introduced, in cultivation, rare. — CHINA (South): Yunnan: Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture: Gaoligongshan National Nature Reserve 高黎贡山自然保护区.
Culm size: Height 5–8 m.
Images: Photos in T. P. Yi & al., Iconographia Bambusoidearum Sinicarum, 2008: p. 205 (descr.), p. 207 (photos) [#1178].
Comments: Two publications for Dendrocalamus pachycladus were initially found cited in T. P. Yi & al., Iconographia Bambusoidearum Sinicarum, 2008, p. 185, 205, 717: "D. Z. Li et Hui, Res. Bamb. Nujiang 34, pl. 9, 1994; Sci. Silv. Sin. 35(1): 44, f. 2, 1999". However, the name, Dendrocalamus pachycladus, has neither been listed in the Flora of China [#1303], nor in PlantList.org (both accessed 16 Oct. 2015 and 10 July 2020). On IPNI, the name was not listed when accessing the database in 2015, but in 2020 as "Dendrocalamus pachycladus Hsueh, D.Z.Li & C.M.Hui, Res. Bamb. From Nujiang 34 (1994)". On KewScience POWO [#1305], the name was listed as "Dendrocalamus pachycladus Hsueh, D.Z.Li & C.M.Hui", and accepted (accessed 29 Apr. and 10 July 2020). A further reference to Dendrocalamus pachycladus Hsueh et D. Z. Li was found: C. M. Hui & al., New species of bamboo subfamily from the Nature Reserve of Gaoligongshan, China, Scientia Silvae Sinicae, 1999-01 [#1317].
Specimen: BS-0096 [-] (living plants), received received as "#4, Dendrocalamus pachycladus, 江竹 (jiāng zhú)" from FMXG, China, 25 Jan. 2013.
Characteristics: Habit unicaespitose, dense clump. Rhizome pachymorph, short. Culms erect, straight, bending outward above; ultimate size not yet known (length ca. 9 m, diameter 5 cm, in June 2021). Young shoots conical; sheath peach-colored, with brown hairs; culm-leaf blades erect to patent, dull purplish-black; emerge late. Culm-internodes terete, 20–35 cm long, initially farinose, thus appearing bluish, glabrous, becoming mid-green to dark green with age; walls thick. Culm-nodes not prominent; nodal line horizontal, dipping slightly below the bud; sheath scar marginally protruding, 0.5 mm; supranodal line obscure, without a ridge, ca. 10 mm above the nodal line; with a narrow whitish to greenish sericeous band below the nodal line when young; aerial roots none. Branch-buds solitary, large, broad-ovate, from the basal node up. Branches several, slender, subequal, one slightly dominant; unbranched on the basal and lower culm; branching intravaginal; rebranching. Culm-leaves deciduous. Culm-leaf sheaths triangular to parabolic, little longer than half the length of the internode, leathery, peach-colored to purplish and apically thinly farinose when young, changing to green, straw-colored when dry, with brown hairs mainly in the middle and lower part of the sheath; apex narrowly truncate; margins pale to brown ciliate, partly eciliate. Culm-leaf auricles rim-like, waved, reflexed, dark purplish when young, with a few short, waved bristles. Culm-leaf ligule prominent, dark purplish when young, lacerate, ciliate. Culm-leaf blades leathery, erect to deflexed, persistent, narrowly lanceolate to narrow-triangular, a third to a fourth as long as the sheath, usually glabrous. Foliage-leaves (7) 9–12 (15) per branchlet. Foliage-leaf sheaths keeled on the back, light green to orange when young, glabrous to pale hirsute; apex truncate, glabrous. Foliage-leaf auricles inconspicuous low rims, orange when young, without oral setae. Foliage-leaf ligule ca. 1 mm high, orange when young, margin subentire. Foliage-leaf blades long-lanceolate, 23–36 × 2.5–5.5 cm, glabrous on both surfaces; base rounded to wedge-shaped; apex attenuate; one margin antrorsely scabrous, the other smooth; midvein distinct, light green; pseudopetiole 5–7 mm long.
Comments: It is not certain whether BS-0096 is correctly identified as Dendrocalamus pachycladus. The photos in Iconographia Bambusoidearum Sinicarum (T. P. Yi & al., 2008 [#1178]) show an exceptionally large, round branch-bud, as well as a very dominant branch. These features could not be observed in BS-0096.