Description
From Bamboos of Thailand, Native and Introduced Species (Poaceae: Bambusoideae) — An Annotated Compilation, by D. Ohrnberger (Khun Dieter – คุณดีเท่อร์)
Habit tight caespitose. Rhizome pachymorph, short. Culms straight, erect or slightly bending below, strongly bending or arching above; longer than 6 m [ultimate length not yet known]. Young shoots green, with spreading green culm-leaf blades; emerge April – November. Culm-internodes terete, 55–83 cm long, mid-green, initially scaberulous, becoming glabrous and smooth soon, not farinose; diameter 1.5 cm [ultimate diameter not yet known]; walls thin, lacuna filled with white pith, but a small cavity remains. Culm-nodes glabrous, smooth, slightly prominent; sheath scar 1–2 mm high, marginally protruding; supranodal line obscure, without a ridge; with a white, non-farinose, about 2 cm tall ring below the sheath scar, the ring color fading with age, and with a few short rigid appressed black hairs; aerial roots none. Branch-buds solitary, from the basal node up. Branches initially 2–9, with the central one usually somewhat dominant on the mid-culm, several small unequal to subequal branches of different lengths develop on the upper culm, usually none of them very dominant; occasionally a single, long and very dominant branch develops negative-phototropic, almost as thick as the main culm; unbranched on the basal and lower culm; branching intravaginal or infravaginal; rebranching. Culm-leaves persistent and decaying on the lower unbranched culm, deciduous on the mid-culm and the upper (branched) culm. Culm-leaf sheaths 6–7 cm wide at the base, 14–19 cm long, shorter than the internode; thickly papery, mid-green to light green when young, light straw colored when dry, then becoming dark brownish mottled, scattered with short pale hairs when young, becoming glabrous soon, smooth or slightly rough; margins initially pale ciliate, becoming glabrous soon; apex 10–12 mm wide, horizontal-truncate or slightly convex rounded. Culm-leaf auricles low inconspicuous rims, dark green to blackish green when young, with straight or waved 6 mm long pale late caducous bristles. Culm-leaf ligule 0.5–1 mm high, inconspicuous, subentire, with a few short pale caducous bristles when young. Culm-leaf blades papery, caducous, patent when young, strongly reflexed when old, green when young, light straw-colored when dry, narrowly lanceolate, 6–14 cm long, usually half as long as the sheath at mid-culm; junction with the sheath apex 5 mm wide; margins convolute from an early stage of development; apex long pointed. Foliage-leaves (3) 7–8 (10) per branchlet. Foliage-leaf sheaths keeled, mid-green to light green, initially with short pale hirsute and tomentose hairs, becoming glabrous and smooth soon; margins eciliate or ciliolate; apex reddish when young. Foliage-leaf auricles inconspicuous rims, mid-green to dark green when young; with erect 10–15 mm long pale bristles. Foliage-leaf ligule inconspicuous, less than 1 mm high, entire. Foliage-leaf blades tough, medium-sized, (16) 23–32 (40) × 4–7 cm, lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, mid-green and glabrous on both surfaces; base unequal, usually wedge-shaped, rarely rounded; apex attenuate; margins antrorsely scabrous to scaberulous; midrib proximally prominent and light green beneath; pseudopetiole 5–12 mm long. Flowers are known [not dissected], protogynous. Spikelets 2–4 cm long, brown to reddish brown, short pale hispid, in tufts of 5–12 spikelets, 3–15 cm apart, on leafless branches and terminating leafy branches. Style long and thin, hollow; stigmas 3, short, bent, hispid, whitish and pinkish. Stamens 6, thread-like, flat, becoming twisted, green (the central axis) and reddish or reddish-brown (the parts twisted around the axis), ca. 18 mm long; apex pointed; filaments white, fused to a tube. Seed: Caryopsis, long-ovoid, ca. 2 cm long and 3.5–4.5 mm thick, longitudinally slightly grooved; pericarp thin, glossy, adnate to the seed; apex with a long style permanently attached.
The species is easily distinguishable from similar species by its convolute culm-leaf blades (in an early green stage as well as in the dried stage), which are strongly reflexed when dry. Further notable characteristics are the glabrous culm-internodes in mature culms (in Schizostachyum species, the internodes are evenly covered with fuzz even in the mature stage), and the broad white ring below the nodes. This white ring is neither mealy nor waxy, and is not sericeous. The white color can not be rubbed away, but it fades with age. The branch complement of unequal rather than subequal branches, and the potential of developing a single upright branch almost as thick as the main branch, have been observed in at least one other species of Schizostachyum.
Origin
THAILAND (West): Kanchanaburi Province. Also known from Tak Province, where the species flowered in the 2010s (Mu Chakkrapong, pers. comm., Facebook, 26 Mar. 2021).
Cultivation
Grows well in part shade on heavy moisture-retentive soil with good drainage.