BAMBUSA GLAUCOPHYLLA

Description

From Bamboos of Thailand, Native and Introduced Species (Poaceae: Bambusoideae) — An Annotated Compilation, by D. Ohrnberger (Khun Dieter – คุณดีเท่อร์)

Culms 4.5–5 m high, diameter to 2.5 cm. Foliage-leaf blades small, 5–12 × 1–1.5 cm, green with white to cream stripes. Otherwise like the green leaf variety.

Characteristics: Habit unicaespitose, dense. Rhizome pachymorph, short. Culms erect below, straight to slightly zigzag, widely bending outwards above, over 5 m tall, 3 cm (or little more) in diameter [ultimate size not yet known]. Young shoots conical; sheaths green, dark hairy, sheath margins initially brownish green; culm-leaf blades erect to deflexed, medium green; emerge from June to September. Culm-internodes terete, to 44 cm long, medium green, dull, initially scattered with dark brown hairs, becoming glabrous and smooth; walls thick (wall 1.1 cm, cavity 0.8 cm, in a 3.0 cm thick culm at 108 cm above the ground); cavity without pith. Culm-nodes glabrous, smooth, not or slightly prominent; nodal line horizontal; sheath scar marginally protruding 0.5 mm, initially with a very narrow ring (just below the sheath scar) 1–2 mm high of short dark brown hairs; supranodal line discernible, without a slight ridge, 6–8 mm above the nodal line; aerial roots present on the first 2–3 basal nodes. Branch-buds solitary, pointed-subrotund to triangular, from the basal node up, the first 4–6 buds usually remain dormant in mature plants. Branches several, slender, subequal, the central one dominant, usually 1–1.5 m long, upright, then bending downwards; branchless on the first 4–6 nodes of the basal culm; branching intravaginal; rebranching. Culm-leaves deciduous. Culm-leaf sheaths bell-shaped, 12.5 cm wide at the base, 13 cm long, shorter than the internode, leathery, green when young, straw-colored with a reddish tint when drying, dull straw-colored when dry, densely covered with appressed dark brown to blackish hairs, but may be glabrous in a juvenile plant; apex narrowly convex-rounded, symmetrical; margins with short dark ciliae, becoming eciliate. Culm-leaf auricles conspicuous rounded lobes, persistent, equal or somewhat unequal in shape and size, usually 6 mm wide, 5 mm high, erect, not contiguous with the basal margins of the blade, about 5 mm distant from each other, orange-green to green when young, glabrous, margins with short pale waved bristles, waved towards the blade on both auricles, bristles to 5 mm long. Culm-leaf ligule 2–2.5 mm high, convex, denticulate or entire. Culm-leaf blades leathery, erect, deflexed or reflexed, persistent, narrowly long-triangular, near the base 12 mm wide, constricted to 10 mm at the junction with the sheath apex, ca. 4 cm long, glabrous adaxially and abaxially or with very few short dark hairs, green when young, light straw-colored when dry; apex long pointed; margins short dark ciliate or eciliate. Foliage-leaves about 6–11 (14) per branchlet. Foliage-leaf sheaths green to orange-green when young, glabrous, or with a few short blackish hairs; apex truncate, glabrous; margins usually eciliate. Foliage-leaf auricles small glabrous lobes, rounded, erect, somewhat curved outwards, orange-green when young, usually longer than wide, ca. 2 mm long and 1 mm wide, margins short pale waved ciliate. Foliage-leaf ligule inconspicuous, orange-green when young, 0.5 mm high, margin entire; outer ligule inconspicuous. Foliage-leaf blades green, (18) 22–29 (32) cm long, (1.5) 2.5–4 (5) cm wide, somewhat rigid, glabrous on both surfaces, long-lanceolate, upper surface medium green, lower surface minutely glaucous; base rounded to wedge-shaped; apex attenuate; margins antrorsely scabrous; midvein distinct, proximally prominent, light green beneath; pseudopetiole 3–8 mm long.

Origin

Origin is South-East Asia, but the precise location is unknown. — THAILAND, cultivated. — MALAYSIA, cultivated. — INDONESIA, cultivated. — In cultivation in many tropical and subtropical countries.

Uses

Plants as garden ornamentals and for dense hedges of low to moderate height, or as potted ornamental plants; easy to prune to the desired shape.

Cultivation

Easy-growing in loamy moist soil with good drainage, exposed to full sun. Does not grow well in shade.

References

Bibliography of Bamboos of Thailand