Schizostachyum funghomii

Synonym: Schizostachyum subvexorum Q. H. Dai & D. Y. Huang, J. Bamboo Res. 16 (3), 1997: 27.

Thai name: ไผ่เฮียะฝุงฮอม (phai hia fung hom).

Chinese names: 沙罗单竹 (shā luō dān zhú); 大薄竹 (dà bo zhú).

Distribution: THAILAND, introduced in 2011–2012, in cultivation. — CHINA (South): Yunnan, Guangdong, Guangxi, native. — VIETNAM (North), borderland areas with China.

Descriptions:

(1) "Culms erect, to 12 m, 4–10 cm in diam., apically suberect; internodes terete, straight, to 67 cm, scabrous, white powdery, initially often strigose; wall ca. 3 mm. Branches 50–70 cm. Culm sheaths tardily deciduous, straw-colored, white powdery, with stiff, pale yellow hairs, margins glabrous, apex truncate or slightly concave; auricles inconspicuous; oral setae many, ca. 5 mm; ligule truncate, short, 1–2 mm, glabrous, margin lobed, with fimbriae 3–5 mm; blade reflexed, linear-lanceolate, less than 1/2 length of sheath, abaxially glabrous, apex acuminate. Leaves 6–9 per ultimate branch; sheaths often white powdery; auricles inconspicuous; oral setae numerous, 5–6 mm; blade oblong-lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 20–30 × 2.5–4 cm … [flowers described] … Fruit unknown. New shoots Jul–Aug." — Flora of China [#1303].

(2) "… caespitose. Rhizomes short; pachymorph. Culms erect; 1000 cm long; 40–60 mm diam.; woody. Culm-internodes terete; hollow; 20–40 cm long; antrorsely scabrous; distally glabrous, or pubescent. Lateral branches dendroid. Culm-sheaths 15–30 cm long; pubescent; truncate at apex; without auricles; ciliate on shoulders. Culm-sheath ligule 1–2 mm high; dentate. Culm-sheath blade linear, or lanceolate; pubescent. Ligule an eciliate membrane. Leaf-blade base with a brief petiole-like connection to sheath. Leaf-blades lanceolate. Leaf-blade surface pubescent; hairy abaxially. Leaf-blade margins scabrous. Leaf-blade apex attenuate. … [flowers and seeds described]." — Kew GrassBase [#1335].

Images: Line drawing in Flora of China [#1303]. Photos in T. P. Yi & al., Iconographia Bambusoidearum Sinicarum, 2008: 3 photos on p. 055 [#1178].

Uses: Culms for making paper pulp, split culms for weaving (basketry, mats); plants as garden ornamentals, and for landscaping.

Specimens: BS-0622 [-] (seeds), received as "沙罗单竹 (shā luō dān zhú), Schizostachyum funghomii", from FMXG, Yunnan, China, Mar. 2011. BS-0622-1 [S5] and BS-0622-2 [BBG] (living plants), both raised from seeds, received as "沙罗单竹 (shā luō dān zhú), Schizostachyum funghomii", from FMXG, China, June 2012.

Characteristics (BS-0622-1): Habit tight caespitose. Rhizome pachymorph, short. Culms straight, erect, bending outwards and widely arching, ca. 10 m long. Young shoots conical, sheaths green, turning yellowish from the margins; culm-leaf blades spreading to reflexed, green, not flat, rolled in sideways, and often longitudinally wrinkled, the blade base noticeably thick plumose; emerge from April to September. Culm-internodes terete, 60–92 cm long, almost dull blackish when young, turning into dull dark green with age, scabrous, covered with persistent soft whitish appressed fuzz (can be easily wiped off), not white powdery, easily splitting; diameter to 4.3 cm; walls thin to very thin, wall width 1 mm by 3 cm in diameter on the lower culm. Culm-nodes glabrous, smooth, not prominent; nodal line horizontal; sheath scar narrow, marginally or not protruding; supranodal line obscure, without a ridge; with a white persistent ring below the nodal line, the ring 7–10 mm high; aerial roots none. Branch-buds solitary, subrotund; apex cordately notched; present from the basal node up (or the first or the first two basal nodes without buds). Branches many, subequal, slender, short, ca. 1.5 m long, usually shorter, arching; unbranched on the basal and lower culm; branching intravaginal; rebranching. Culm-leaves deciduous on branched nodes of the mid-culm and upper culm, tardily deciduous or persistent on the unbranched lower culm. Culm-leaf sheaths broad parabolic, ca. 17 cm wide at the base, ca. 17 cm long, much shorter than the internode, usually one quarter to one-sixth of the internode length; thickly papery, rigid, light green to yellowish-green when fresh, whitish to yellowish straw-colored when dry, with an occasional orange tint when drying, light to medium straw-colored with dark gray patches when old; rough, scattered with short stiff rigid whitish, more or less long-persistent hairs, not white powdery; apex horizontally truncate or slightly concave; margins with deciduous 1 mm short pale ciliae, the overlapping margin densely ciliate, the overlapped margin sparsely ciliate or eciliate; basal margin initially with a dense ring of pale downwards directed, early caducous hairs. Culm-leaf auricles low erect rims, constantly ca. 1 mm tall, adnate to the margins of the blade base and extending along the whole sheath apex, dark green to blackish when young; margins with many 5–10 mm long erect, slightly undulated, pale to brownish bristles. Culm-leaf ligule ca. 1–1.5 mm high, irregularly denticulate, eciliate. Culm-leaf blades rigid, leathery, persistent, reflexed to strongly reflexed, linear-lanceolate, about half length compared to the sheath length on the lower culm, as long as the sheath length on the mid-culm, and one-fourth or shorter on the basal culm; width of the junction with the sheath ca. 1/3 of the sheath apex width; initially medium green, changing to dark green or blackish green while still young, straw-colored when dry; adaxially densely and thickly brownish villous or plumose near the base, abaxially glabrous; apex long pointed; margins eciliate, incurved from the beginning when fresh and when dry. Foliage-leaves (8) 9 (10) per branchlet. Foliage-leaf sheaths keeled on the back, medium green, glabrous or pale hispidulous; margins ciliolate or eciliate; apex truncate. Foliage-leaf auricles inconspicuous low and long rims, green, the margins with several early caducous erect pale bristles to ca. 5 mm long. Foliage-leaf ligule inconspicuous, low; margin subentire, cleft and denticulate; outer ligule an inconspicuous glabrous callus or membrane. Foliage-leaf blades lanceolate, (16 ) 20–34 (37 ) × 3–6 (6.5) cm; glabrous above, puberulent beneath when young, almost glabrous when old; medium green above, somewhat bluish-green beneath; base rounded to wedge-shaped; apex attenuate; margins antrorsely scabrous; midrib distinct, proximally prominent and yellowish beneath; pseudopetiole ca. 3–5 mm long, adaxially puberulent, abaxially glabrous. Flowers not seen, seeds known.

Uses: Plants are very attractive for gardens and landscaping. Young shoots are edible but slightly bitter in taste.

Cultivation requirements: Easy and fast-growing; in part shade to full sun, sandy loam to clay loam, normal moisture-retentive to moist with good drainage. Can tolerate temporary flooding; a 5-day flood in August 2020 caused no damage to the plant.

Seed viability: Three months under normal atmospheric conditions; half a year under storage at 1–6 °C. — acc. FMXG.

Seed weight: 10 g ≈ 190–260 dried spikelets (husk-wrapped seeds).

Seed germination: Seeds (BS-0622-1) laid on moistened tissue paper, in June 2012, 29–31 °C day temperature, with diffuse light, 24 °C night temperature, atmospheric humidity >70%, the first coleoptiles emerged after 10 days, germination rate low (<40%).

Comments: The description of BS-0622-1 does not perfectly match the description in the Flora of China and Kew GrassBase. One might consider the deviations of minor importance, but they are not few. For example, I have not observed deposition of white powder on the internodes and culm-leaf sheaths, and the hairs on the culm-leaf sheaths are white or whitish, but not pale yellow; pale yellow is the surface of the sheath for some time during its drying. However, when applying the key in the Flora of China, Schizostachyum funghomii is the species that best fits the characteristics of BS-0622-1. Nevertheless, I would still consider the identification of BS-0622-1 as Schizostachyum funghomii to be unsettled.