Tongpeia arachnoides

• • Type: UK, Amersham (cult.), Stapleton 1412, 22 ii 2021 (holotype WSY), from Yunnan, sent as seed by Yunnan Bamboo Nursery, FMXG (as "Fargesia yunnanensis Hsueh & T. P. Yi").

  • Synonyms (incl. misapplied and invalid names): Fargesia yunnanensis hort., non Hsueh & T. P. Yi; Fargesia gaolinensis B. Z. He in B. Lan, Comp. Bamboo Fr. Seedl., 2010: p. 71, invalid [#1179]; Fargesia songmingensis L. Gao, invalid, Borinda gaolinensis, invalid.

  • Distribution: CHINA (South): Yunnan, native; on mountains at high altitudes. — THAILAND (North): introduced from China, in cultivation, very rare. Also cultivated in Europe and the USA.

  • Description: "Plants forming dense clumps. Rhizomes pachymorph, neck to 15 cm. Culms nodding to pendulous, probably to ca. 6 m tall; internodes terete, to 15–25(–30) cm, to ca. 2.5 cm in diam., bright green with light deciduous blue-grey wax at first, becoming yellow-green, or red to dark purple after exposure, smooth, glabrous, walls thick, cavity with some pithy sponge only at most basal nodes; nodes not prominent, supra-nodal ridge obscure, sheath scar prominent, initially lightly tomentose; branches initially 5–9, subequal, strong, angular, becoming nearly horizontal. Culm sheaths very persistent, much longer than internodes, to 40 cm, narrowly triangular, distally very thin, basally thick-papery, initially light green, variably purple-spotted and blotched at first, sparsely to densely and persistently purple-setose, each bristle in a dark spot or blotch; apex of new shoots initially broad and inflated with loose sheaths, often pink to purple; margins prominently long-ciliate; base glabrous or with sparse hairs; auricles to 1 mm, reflexed, an undulating band merging into blade base, purple, tomentose; oral setae absent; ligule to 3 mm, fimbriate, tomentose; blade small, short, lanceolate, glabrous, erect or reflexed, deciduous. Leaf sheath often distally pink-purple, glabrous but distal margins lightly pubescent and apically shortly ciliate, shoulders level; auricles large, falcate, reflexed, often purple; oral setae 0–3 erect each side of pseudopetiole, 6-10 spreading from each auricle, straight or wavy, white, to 10 mm; ligule truncate, to 1 mm, densely tomentose to pilose, long-fimbriate to 5 mm on larger leaves, to ciliate on smaller leaves; external ligule to 0.5 mm, tomentose, shortly ciliate; blade to 12 cm, lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, light green, base rounded to cuneate, abaxial very shortly pilose to proximally densely pilose and extremely densely pilose to 1 mm by basal midrib and on pseudopetiole, adaxial initially sparsely to densely pilose, secondary veins 3–4-paired, vein tessellation obscure, margins spinescent-serrulate. … [flowers and seeds described]." — C. M. A. Stapleton, J. Amer. Bamboo Soc. 31, 2021: 1-16 [#1384].

  • Images: Photos in C. M. A. Stapleton, 2021: 1-16 [#1384]; Bamboo Identification [#1336].

  • Uses: Shoots edible, said to be delicious and sweet. Culms of an adult plant can be used for garden and farm tools. Plants can be used as decorative garden plants as solitary, for hedges and privacy screening, and as container plants.

  • Cultivation requirements: In full or partial shade, soil moisture-retentive to moist with good drainage. Not tolerant of flooding, not tolerant of drought. Not very heat-resistant. Frost tolerance: All populations of the species grow at high elevations and are recorded to be frost-tolerant to about –10 °C or lower temperatures. Shooting in Chiang Mai (ca. 300 m alt.) initiated in January/February.

  • Seed weight: ≈300–720 seeds / 10 g.

  • Seed viability: Six months under normal atmospheric conditions; over one year in storage at 1–6 °C.

• • Comments:

  • (1) Several seedlings of Tongpeia arachnoides were planted at Bambusetum Baan Sammi (altitude approx. 300 m) from 2010 to 2015, where they survived for several years. At first, they developed well, but after a few years, they apparently suffered and eventually died. The last surviving seedling, a small clump with about 5 culms up to 1.8 m high, suffered severely during the rainy season of 2021, was therefore removed in August 2021, but did not recover, and died soon thereafter.

  • (2) Many seedlings of Tongpeia arachnoides have been distributed to a few gardens in the mountainous areas of northern Thailand (altitudes 500 m and above), where some of them may have survived.

• • Specimens: BS-0747 [SSG], as "Fargesia albo-cerea"; BS-0758 [-], as "F. sp. 'Black'" and "F. albo-cerea 'Black'"; BS-0668 [-], as "F. fungosa"; BS-0623 [-], as "F. gaolinensis"; BS-0643 [SSG], as "F. huaningensis"; BS-0759 [-], as "F. sp. from Lijiang"; BS-0629 [-], as "F. papyrifera"; BS-0669 [-], as "F. similaris"; BS-0630 [-], as "F. songmingensis"; BS-0687 [†], as "F. yuanjiangensis"; BS-0336 [†] & BS-0670 [-], as "F. yunnanensis"; all are living plants raised from seeds, received from China 2009-2014. 

  • Provenance of seeds: According to the seed supplier FMXG/YNB with reference to the seed collector, the seeds were from different, more or less isolated mountainous locations at high altitudes in Yunnan, southern China; hence, different names were applied to the plants/seeds by the collector.

  • Seed distributor: All seeds offered by FMXG/YNB, Yunnan, under different Fargesia names (as listed below), from 2009 to Nov. 2015.

  • Images: Photos are available of specimens BS-0336, BS-0623, BS-0629, BS-0630, BS-0643, BS-0668, BS-0669, BS-0670, BS-0687, BS-0747, BS-0758, BS-0759. Their links are itemized below.

  • Seed weight: 10 g ≈ usually (300) 370 – 450 (490) dried spikelets (husk-wrapped seeds), but more in "Fargesia gaolinensis" (420–550 seeds) and "Fargesia yuanjiangensis" (640–720 seeds).

  • Seed germination: Usually, the germination rate is low to moderate (20% to 60%), and coleoptiles emerge in the 2nd week after sowing.

• • Comments (on cultivation):

  • (1) Cultivation requirements: Most clones derived from seeds seem to be easy and vigorously growing (under a temperate climate). They grow on usual garden soil, or sandy loam to clay loam, normal moisture-retentive to moist soil with (very) good drainage. A few days of waterlogging might seriously harm the plants, and they may even die off. Soil pH requirements are not recorded. Root competition can cause serious harm. There are different observations on sun exposure requirements. The plants grow well in light shade but can be exposed to the sun to some extent. The plants seem to be heat-tolerant if the roots get enough moisture. The range of frost tolerance is still in question. The plants can resist down to –3 °C without damage to shoots and leaves, other records say –9 °C. In the Netherlands, the plants have proven to withstand –12 °C. Very low temperatures (less than –20 °C) were recorded by the seed supplier.

  • (2) Cultivation under a tropical climate: The plants have proven to grow quite well at higher altitudes (above 500 m) in mountainous areas in northern Thailand, best in light shade on a moist slope. At Chiang Mai (altitude 300 m), the plants grow slowly but can grow more or less well on the coolest, shadiest sites in moist but well-drained, rich soil. The seedlings that were grown at Bambusetum Baan Sammi in Chiang Mai had attained a height of about 2 m by November 2015, whereas those grown in the Netherlands during the same period had exceeded the double height.

• • Comments (on species identification)

  • (3) The seed supplier, FMXG/YNB, offered seeds from different locations in Yunnan. The collector(s) of the seeds considered the seeds from the different locations to represent different Fargesia species, which were named (1) "Fargesia albo-cerea", (2) "Fargesia sp. 'Black'" or "Fargesia albo-cerea 'Black'", (3) "Fargesia fungosa", (4) "Fargesia gaolinensis", (5) "Fargesia huaningensis", (6) "Fargesia sp. from Lijiang", (7) "Fargesia papyrifera", (8) "Fargesia similaris", (9) "Fargesia songmingensis", (10) "Fargesia yuanjiangensis", and (11) "Fargesia yunnanensis".

  • (4) When all those seeds had been announced and released by the seed supplier under the different Fargesia names, I remained suspicious about the genuine identity of the species, simply because Fargesia/Borinda species flower rarely, perhaps only every 100 years, or they possibly have at least a similarly long flowering cycle. This renders it extremely unlikely that, within the short period of only five years, ten different species should flower simultaneously, all in Yunnan.

  • (5) At Bambusetum Baan Sammi, Doi Saket, and Boonthammee Bamboo Garden, Hang Dong, both in Chiang Mai Province, seedlings had successfully been raised from all those different types of seeds. However, due to the tropical Chiang Mai climate, all those seedlings grew slowly and did not attain a size that would allow an early comparison of their characteristics, and several seedlings died early. Some characteristics of the first introduction of "Fargesia yunnanensis" could be examined in 2013, and it turned out that it was definitely not this species. It remained unidentified at species rank and was considered to represent a species in the genus Borinda. In addition, from this point onwards, I became aware that all those "Fargesias" looked very similar. Seeds had been brought early to the Netherlands and England, where they developed quickly into healthy and vigorous plants, and there it was observed by one or more people that the seedlings hardly represented different species and were misidentified. Recently, the plants under the different Fargesia names were investigated by the bamboo taxonomist, Chris Stapleton. He considered that all the different Fargesia names represent only one species, an unidentified or new Borinda species (Bamboo Identification [#1336]).

  • (6) In 2021, Chris Stapleton established a new genus, Tongpeia, similar in characteristics to Borinda, and included three species in Tongpeia, all native to Yunnan, China. — C. M. A. Stapleton, J. Amer. Bamboo Soc. 31, 2021: 1-16 [#1384].

  • (7) All seedlings at Bambusetum Baan Sammi died sooner or later; none could develop into a mature plant, but a few seedlings reached a size large enough to observe some (diagnostic) characteristics. Photographs were taken, but a sufficiently detailed description was refrained from as not enough characteristics could be observed. The observed characteristics fit well with the description of Tongpeia arachnoides:
    Rhizome short, pachymorph. Culm-internodes terete, green, becoming dark purple, glabrous. Culm-nodes not prominent; sheath scar initially soft hairy; supranodal line obscure, not ridged. Branches several. Culm-leaf sheaths rather long, with small purple blotches, each blotch with a pale soft hair; the sheath base initially pale hairy; apex purplish when young; margins long pale ciliate. Culm-leaf blade short. Foliage-leaf sheaths with pronounced auricles and long, irregularly spreading pale bristles.

  • (8) It is certainly unfortunate that so many different names were applied to and published for the same species. I feel sure that this was done partly due to a misconception of using scientific names by the collector, and partly due to the expectation that the seeds collected from different, more or less isolated locations must represent more than a single species, or at least varieties within a species. The seed provider maintained this notion by adopting the names provided by the collector(s). Due to the impossibility of verifying or falsifying this assumption when only seeds and young seedlings were available, the names were perpetuated by all successive seed distributors, with combinations either maintained in the genus Fargesia or transferred informally to Borinda.

  • (9) Although there was a strong suspicion that the seeds with all the different names represented a single species, I figured it would be better to keep them separate than to merge them all because seedlings from the various locations could be ecotypes, with site-specific variations like tolerances to factors such as temperature, sun exposure, soil type, parasites, and others. They will show their variability once they reach maturity, are planted in the ground, and become established. Already recorded by the seed supplier were differences in plant heights and frost tolerance. However, proof is needed and can be obtained over time, provided the seeds/seedlings are labeled differently. However, these desirable investigations and comparisons could not be carried out at Bambusetum Baan Sammi because the climate in this region does not offer optimal growth conditions for this species.

All specimens are listed in the following under the names applied for the seeds by the seed supplier, FMXB/YNB. Most of the seed germination tests were carried out at Bambusetum Baan Sammi. The data on provenance, description, frost tolerance, seed weight, and seed viability were provided by FMXG/YNB unless stated otherwise. Photos were taken at Bambusetum Baan Sammi unless stated otherwise or reference given to FMXG/YNB.

(1) "Fargesia albo-cerea" — BS-0747

(2) "Fargesia sp. 'Black'", "Fargesia albo-cerea 'Black'" — BS-0758, BS-0758-1

(3) "Fargesia fungosa" — BS-0668 etc.

(4) "Fargesia gaolinensis" — BS-0623, BS-0623-2

(5) "Fargesia huaningensis" — BS-0643

(6) "Fargesia sp., Lijiang" — BS-0759

(7) "Fargesia papyrifera" — BS-0629

(8) "Fargesia similaris" — BS-0669

(9) "Fargesia songmingensis" — BS-0630

(10) "Fargesia yuanjiangensis" — BS-0687

(11) "Fargesia yunnanensis" — BS-0670 etc.

• • Provenance: Seeds from Yunnan, China, without precise locality. Offered by FMXG/YNB, southern China, as "Fargesia yunnanensis, 香笋竹 (xiāng sǔn zhú), 云南箭竹 (yún nán jiàn zhú)"; collected Nov. 2010, and received 30 May 2011 (BS-0670); collected Sep. 2011, but not received; collected Feb. and Sep. 2012, but not received; collected Sep. 2013, and received 14 Oct. 2013 (BS-0670-2); collected Sep. 2014, and received 13 Oct. 2014 (BS-0670-3). Seeds offered by P. E., Germany, as "Fargesia yunnanensis", received 24 Nov. 2009 (BS-0336).

  • Description: Height 8–15 m, culm diameter 3–7 cm.

  • Frost tolerance to –13.5 (–19) °C.

  • Seed weight: 10 g ≈ 370–450 dried spikelets (husk-wrapped seeds).

  • Seed germination: (1) Seeds placed in moistened coir dust at 100% in June 2011, atmo­spheric humidity >70%, coleoptiles emerged after 7 days, germination rate moderate (40–60%). — (2) seeds, 19 months old (from the Nov. 2010 collection), buried in moistened coir dust on 24 July 2012, 27–28 °C day temperature, diffuse light, 22–24 °C night temperature, atmo­spheric humidity >70%, sprouts appeared within 10 days, germination rate rather low (<20%). — (3) Germination rate around 75% at FMXG laboratory, 50-65% at FMXG Nursery, Oct. 2013.

  • Comments: (1) In 2013, it was determined on immature plants (raised from seeds BS-0336 and BS-0670) that this bamboo is certainly not Fargesia yunnanensis Hsueh & T. P. Yi, but may be an unidentified species of the genus Borinda. The plants have culms mottled when young, dark maroon, almost black when old, and whitish culm sheaths with long pale bristles. — (2) Photos of genuine Fargesia yunnanensis are in AsianFlora [#1332], and in Kimmei. — (3) Seeds under the same botanical name, "Fargesia yunnanensis", but with a different Chinese name, 昆明实心竹 (kūn míng shí xīn zhú), Kunming Solid Bamboo, were offered by FMXG Nursery; culm height 4–7 m, culm diameter 3–5 cm, frost tolerance to –20 °C (5 Oct. 2012, 27 Mar. 2013). Later, with unchanged names, some data were changed: culm height 8–15 m, culm diameter 3–7 cm, frost tolerance to –19 °C (25 Sep. 2013, 6 and 14 Jan. 2014, 14 Apr. 2014, ff.). These seeds were not received.