The Common Types of Bamboo

Bamboos are giant woody grasses with a hollow stalk (culm) segmented of nodes and internodes. A culm has several segments in which each of them begins and ends with a woody joint known as a node. And the space between those nodes is known as internode. Typically leaves and branches grow out from the node.

The culm of this grass grows out vertically from underground. The roots and shoots come from the underground culm known as rhizome. Based on the characteristic of rhizome, bamboo is divided of two groups, clumping bamboo and running bamboo.

Clumping bamboo has developing pachymorph rhizome grow up to new others culm, while running bamboo has ectomorph rizhome growing horizontally that each node produces roots and shoots.

Bamboos belong to the subfamily of bambusoidae that mostly thrives in the tropical areas. About more than 1400 species of bamboo have been identified in the world and several of them are still poorly known.

Most bamboos can be found in Chinese since a long time ago. So, this country claims bamboo is part of the culture that has deeply traditional values. There are common types of bamboo that each type has different colors and characteristics.

Red margin bamboo (Phyllos tachys edulis rubromarginata)

The name of red margin bamboo comes from its new shoots covered red margin sheaths. This bamboo type is a tall bamboo that reaches about 9 to 15 meters in height.

It is fast-growing timber bamboo that tolerances cold climates and dry winds. Red margin bamboo is potential bamboo to cultivate in any condition because of its versatility.

Japan arrow bamboo (pseudosasa japonica)

The name of japan arrow bamboo gets from the history of Japanese samurai that take hard culm bamboo as an arrow. This type of bamboo is origin from parts of Japanese regions and Korea.

It thrives both full sun and shade areas that also tolerate cold temperatures about – 17.7 Celsius. The bamboo has a yellow to brown color of culms and green palm-like leaves.

Golden vivax (Phyllostachys vivax ‘Aureocaulis’)

Golden vivax is fast growing bamboo that reaches height of 10.5 – 21m. This type of bamboo thrives in full sun areas and also able to survive during the winter in the temperature – 20 celsius.

The culms are yellow-golden with vary and random width green stripes. The sheaths which cover the shoot are falling off slowly when shoot grows.

Yellow Grove vivax  (Phyllostachys vivax ‘Huangwenzhu’)

‘Huangwenzhu’ is a Chinese name of yellow grove vivax that means yellow grove bamboo. It has a fresh green new culm with bright yellow stripes on the internode that space in an internode. This bamboo is a tall timber bamboo that reaches of height around 10.5 – 21 m

Fargesia jiuzhaigou “1”

As the name suggest, Fargesia jiuzhaigou “1” is found in jiuzhaigou Park in the Sichuan province, China. This plant is short bamboo that grows about 2.4 to 4 m in height.

This type of bamboo appears the attractive cause of its colorful culms. The new culms are green, however slowly turning to yellow and turn to red color by the light.

The appearance all of those culms show interesting and colorful plant with green soft slender leaves.

Fargesia jiuzhaigou “2”

As the Fargesia Jiuzhaigou “1”, this bamboo also comes from Chinese that has some different characteristics. The culms of Fargesia Jiuzhaigou “2”  are not as bright as its culms, however, the culms are green that slowly turn to deep red to brown by the right mounts of full sun and shade.

This bamboo ideally thrives in the full sun area in the morning while in the shaded area when the afternoon.

Fragresia scabrida

Fragresia scabrid is a short bamboo which grows up to 2.5 to 5 m. It thrives in both full sun and shade areas where at an elevation of 2600 m. This type of bamboo is found in the mountains of the Sichuan Province, China.

Fragresia scabrid is categorized as clumping bamboo that has interesting colors. The new culm s are covered orange that turning purplish and blue cause of the light. The leaves are green with slender elongated shaped that commonly a food source of the giant panda.

Dragon head bamboo (Fragesia rufa)

The Chinese name of Fragaria rufa is ‘Long-Tou Jian-Zhu’ which means dragon head bamboo. It is found in the southwestern region of China that thrives at an elevation of about 1500 to 2200 meters.

Dragon head bamboo is fast-growing bamboo that reaches around 1.8 to 2.4 meters. This type of bamboo tolerates in any conditions of soil (versatile) and grows both in full sunlight and shade area.

Fragresia robusta

Fragesia robusta is the tallest clumping bamboo that origin to the Sichuan province of China. It is the important diet for giant panda and thrives at elevation around 1200 to 2800 m. This type of bamboo versatile plant which lives in both full sun and shade areas. The culms are green to yellow color that remains sheaths on new culms in the beginning of summer

Black Bamboo (Phyllostachys nigra)

As the name implies, black bamboo has a green new culm that slowly turns black when older. The combination color of dark leaves and black clum appears attractive so that this type of bamboo is commonly known as an ornamental plant. It requires full sunlight to grow.

Allgold (Phyllostachys bambusoides)

All gold bamboo is one of medium heigh bamboo that grows about 15 to 30 feet or 5 to 10 meters. The culms have a diameter of about 2 inches or 5 cm and bright yellow color on new culm that turn deep gold when older.

Phyllostachys aureosulcata “spectabilis”

The name spectabilis come from the spectacular color of its new culm. Spectabilis bamboo grows in the sunny place that hardy cold temperature, about – 26 Celsius.

The culms are yellowish with dark green sulcus that turn red when getting the sun. The lower culm potentially shapes zigzag pattern. This type of bamboo is running bamboo included of medium-high bamboo that reaches 15 to 30 feet in height.

Phyllostachys aureosulcata “yellow groove bamboo“

Yellow groove bamboo is one of the medium-high bamboo types which is around 15 to 30 feet or 5 to 9 meters. The diameter of the culm is 1.5” or 4 cm with dark green color and yellow groove. This bamboo is origin to the cold area in Chinese. It grows in a sunny location.

Moso (Phyllos tachys edulis)

Phyllos Stachys edulis is fast growing bamboo that grows about 3 inches or 1 m a day and reaches a height of 9 to 27 m. The name of this bamboo gets from the Chinese “mao zhu” means hairy bamboo.

It is found in the forests and covers vast areas of Chinese. The culms are emerald green covered thin and velvety hairs.

Sasa palmate

Sasa palmate is also called the broad-leaved bamboo due to its large leaves. This bamboo is generally found in Japan that tolerates to shade. Salsa palmate is low growing bamboo that grows about 7 feet in height.

Yushania maculate

This type of bamboo is widely known as Manculata bamboo due to its native region, Mancester

Muriel’s bamboo (Fargesia Murielae)

Muriel’s bamboo is one of the flowering bamboo that also commonly called umbrella bamboo. This bamboo has yellow culm and it is native to nearly all of Asian regions.

Giant bamboo (Dendrocalamus Giganteus)

Giant bamboo is one of largest origin to Southeast Asia. As the name imples, giant bamboo is a subtropical and tropical bamboo that reaches about 30 m. It is fast growing plant which up to 40 cm every day and thrive in both low and high altitudes. Giant bamboo has green culms which turning brownish when dry and dark purple shoots.