nt of Forestry, in the bamboo-pine experiment is acknowledged. Also, cooperation of C.O. Erlanson, J. R. Haun, and W. O. Hawley, of U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Crops Research Division, New Crops Research Branch, Crop Development Section, in planning the tests and supplying planting stock of bamboo is gratefully acknowledged.
**Co-investigation with Sturkie in the Lower Coastal Plain Substation portion of the bamboo experiments.
Botany of Bamboo
Bamboos are true grasses, characterized by hollow or rarely solid stems closed at the joints, or nodes. They have been known and used since ancient times, but their botanical characteristics and relationships are not fully understood. This results in large measure from the fact that most bamboos are extremely slow in flowering and producing seed.
There are two types of bamboo grown in this country: (1) clump type and (2) running type.
The clump type spreads by short rhizomes that produce new canes near the base of the old ones. These are usually of tropical origin and do not thrive in Alabama except along the coast. This type of bamboo is often planted for hedges or singly for specimen plants. It spreads slowly and is easily kept within bounds. All of these bamboos tested at Auburn have been killed back to the ground many times and most of them have been completely killed. The only one surviving in 1968 is Bambusa multiplex var. stripe stem fernleaf PI No. 99289. It is defoliated nearly every winter, but new leaves put out the following spring. During several winters the stems were killed back to the ground, but new canes developed the following year from buds or rhizomes.
The running type is much hardier than the clump type. It produces rhizomes that grow in all directions and may extend for 15 feet or more each year. Thus, it is difficult to confine to a given area.
The running bamboos grow much farther north than the clump bamboos. Some of the species are suited to growth in all areas of Alabama. Most introduced (commonly called “Japanese”) bamboo belongs to the genus Phyllostachys. Semi-arundinaria and a few other genera have occasionally been planted. The “native cane” (bamboo) is Arundinaria. Occasionally found along streams, the Arundinarias occurred at one time in abundance over much of the South in areas known as canebrakes.
Plants of bamboo vary in height from a few inches to a giant size of 70 feet. Plants usually have upright stems with prominent nodes. The internodes vary in length and are usually hollow but are solid in some varieties. In most cases branches occur only at the upper nodes, the remainder of the plant being a long, slender, strong cane, which is the portion of the plant most often used. The plants have a dense fibrous root system and produce rhizomes having buds at irregular intervals along the side.
The rhizomes are heavy, short jointed, often branching underground runners. They are essential for storage and translocation of nutrients. The buds give rise to new culms (canes or plants) or new rhizomes. Usually only a few of the buds along a rhizome begin growth (sprout) in the spring. Most buds remain dormant and may live for 5 or 6 years before they die. Germination of buds on the old (5 or 6 years) rhizomes is very poor. On first-year rhizomes, germination of buds is poor unless attached to the mother plant.
New rhizomes begin to develop about June and continue growth during mid-summer and early fall. The buds on rhizome-nodes swell slowly and continuously for several months. They emerge as new plants when the warm weather of spring arrives. The period of sprout emergence varies according to species, vigor of the mother bamboo, and environmental conditions. Even in one bamboo grove, there are variations of 50 to 60 days between early and late spring sprouting. Sprouting is also affected by moisture, decreasing in dry weather. Although it has been reported that buds sprout poorly following mild winters with few or no hard freezes, the winters at Auburn were always severe enough to induce normal sprouting.
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