3.2 — List of Bamboos

Species and varieties cultivated at Bambusetum Baan Sammi and Boonthammee Bamboo Garden

The following list provides an overview of which bamboo species and varieties were cultivated at Bambusetum Baan Sammi and Boonthammee Bamboo Garden as of 4 April 2018.

The following list provides an overview of which bamboo species and varieties were cultivated at Bambusetum Baan Sammi as of 16 April 2020.

The following list provides an overview of which bamboo species and varieties were cultivated at Bambusetum Baan Sammi as of 23 October 2022.

Five tables include several species considered → Useful Bamboo: giant bamboo, preferred bamboo for construction, bamboo for hedges and screens, bamboo with palatable shoots, and ornamental bamboo.

Bamboos: Clumpers and Runners

From a horticultural point of view, or in general, from the point of view of the behavior of a planted bamboo during its future development, it is very important to distinguish between bamboo clumpers and runners. However, listings sorted by those two types of bamboo are not presented here. Whether a bamboo species can be called a clumper or a runner depends on its rhizome type, which in turn contributes to the type of culm habit. Rhizome and culm habit types are described in Chapters 1 and 2 for almost all bamboo species, so the reader can easily find out which bamboo is a clumper or a runner, and most importantly, this characteristic is consistent within a given genus, except for a few genera not covered herein. 

Clumpers have a pachymorph type of rhizome (resulting in a caespitose or sympodial culm habit); runners have a leptomorph type of rhizome (resulting in a diffuse or monopodial culm habit). 

A pachymorph rhizome can have a short neck or a long (elongated) neck. The neck is the proximal part of the rhizome and is usually devoid of nodes, roots, and buds. The tip of the rhizome grows negative-geotropically (negative gravitropism, upright), forming a culm. Thus, the culm habit is caespitose (rarely diffuse in some genera), and the plant can be called a very tight, tight or dense, moderately dense, or open clumper. 

A leptomorph rhizome is long and segmented into internodes and bud-bearing nodes. The tip of the rhizome grows horizontally underground and typically stays underground, whereas buds develop upright culms, or branch off into another axis of a horizontal underground rhizome. This rhizome can develop a diffuse culm habit, but, in some species, also a pluricaespitose habit. 

At Bambusetum Baan Sammi, problems with invasive bamboo are not an issue simply because bamboo species with a leptomorph rhizome are not planted in the ground. 

The majority of bamboo species in the tropics, at least in the paleotropics, have a pachymorph rhizome, usually with a short neck, and are non-invasive, whereas the majority of bamboo species in temperate regions develop a leptomorph rhizome that can be more or less invasive. 

If protective measures are under consideration when planting bamboo with leptomorph rhizomes, a distinction should be made between two types of planting: small-scale planting in gardens, and large-scale plantation-like planting for commercial purposes. In the first case, rhizome barriers (which are commercially available) can be helpful if the material is suitable, if the rhizome barrier is sunk deep enough into the ground (some bamboo species like Bashania fargesii can develop a rhizome 1.5 m deep), and if the rhizome barrier is inserted into the ground at an angle (approx. 30° – 45°) so that the growing rhizome tip is deflected upwards when it comes into contact with the barrier. In the second case of a large plantation, regular mowing off the new bamboo shoots around the plantation at a width of at least 3–5 m should be most effective. Other effective barriers are deep-grounded concrete structures (e.g., a house with a basement), and a lake or river, but paths and streets are usually not obstructive barriers.