I'd presume it's not a Chusquea. Why does he think that's the species?

He bought it labeled as a Chusquea. After it ran he took a piece to Clinton Bamboo and they said it was Chusquea. I'm hoping to get the species name soon. It's not C. culeo.

I'll try to find it in the "American Bamboos" book. I think there may be a couple running ones, but I'm not sure which ones.
A possibility is C.gigante aka C.breviglumis. It some times seems like a runner.
I'd glady trade for one of my Chusqueas if it is an less common one. I have 4 different C.culeos, and a few others.

My books list some Chusquea as amphimorphs.

Some species are also listed as having very long rhizome necks.

Chusquea Gigantea and some of the other Chusquea cultivars all are 'running clumpers' as Ackar says, they have extremely long rhizome necks and can travel quite some distance. Gigantea more so than the other I believe.

I'm still having trouble getting my head around a Chusquea or a running clumper going 7'. When you said it went that far, did you mean in one year, or is that the space between a new culm and the original clump with nothing between, or what?

I know that Chusqueas in perticular are a funny species to classify, with some confusion about certain species and their characteristics. However, I do think highly of the folks at Clinton Bamboo, so I may have just learned something new! In any case, I'd love to see a picture of this plant...

My friend tells me it's C. gigantea and he got it from Bamboo-U.

"Amphimorph".That's a good new word for me. Long rhizome necks. That sounds accurate.

I took on the task of digging it out. It may have only run 4 ft. at a time as many of the culms had been cut down before I got there. It was very hard to dig and came out bare root due to very dry sandy soil.

Here is a link that might be useful: C. gigantea at Bambu-U

Kudzu, on pages 70 & 272 of your Meredith you can maybe get an idea of how open spaced they are. You blokes in the PNW are far more experienced with Chusquea than I am so you probably already knew this, but I've heard tales of C Gigantea creating open, walk-through groves.

I think that I am learning that the Chusquea are way less heat tolerant than the Fargesias. Last summer my Gigantea died in late summer; this year I obtained a C Cana Prieta which was looking really good and within 2 weeks during our daily 88-94 temps has also started looking as though it is about to croak. It is planted 6 feet from a Rufa, Robusta Wolong, and a Murielae which all look fine. I'm going to avoid any more of them here, FoxD has some nearby that are doing better but I've now killed every one even before winter arrives.

I don't know anything about Chusqueas, but you might get some information from Bamboo.info.

Roy in Tampa

Here is a link that might be useful: Chusquea @ Bambooweb.info

I bought two Chusquea last december and they are very different from each other in the amount of water they take up and how well they have taken the summer heat. one looks pretty much unfazed by the hot weather we had. It is also the one that could drain its pot of water in record time during the winter. I have hopes it will prove itself cold hardy this winter. The other one I am not so sure of.

Foxd- what kinds are you trying? There is one available now called C.andina 'Blue Andes' that is supposed to be the most cold hardy yet, and I think it's leaves have a blue tint. But maybe heat tolerance is more of factor for you.

Tropicallvr: Chusquea culeou seedlings. I did expect them to be more heat tolerant than they apparently are. Then again, I suspect once they get well established they will hold up much better. A Fargesia nitida I bought acted like it was going to curl up and die last year every time it got hot. This year it came through the hot spell unfazed. I'm hoping that will be the case with the Chusquea culeou.

There is only one chusquea that runs - Chusquea las vigas from Mexico. Located there on an expedition by Gib Cooper and someone from Bamboo Sourcery a few years ago. I was lucky enough to get some at the ABS rare bamboo auction at Foothill College a couple of years ago. There is a picture of Gib's on bambooweb.com. Rgds

Hi folk's, here in England, nearly all phyllostachys grow without any barrier, our cold and cloudy summer reduces the plant to a clumping format. However Chusquea gigantea and most of the yushania are regarded as vigorous growers and need control. Rhizome barrier is only rec- for a few plants but CH. gigantea is usually top of the list.

Cheers.

I agree re the C. gigantea. It is the most vigorous of the clumpers. I have had 1 for a couple of years and it is huge. Last year I had continuous culm shooting throughout the year with quite a diameter spread of new shoots. It's a beautiful plant. Rgds

I can add perhaps to Chusqea not being heat-tolerant. I bought a Ch. foliosa last autumn. It struggled through the winter, thought it was going to die, but in the spring, the single culm starting putting out branches and leaves, and a new but short culm put out branches and leaves. It was going to make it, apparently.

But with 75F - 95F from May, even bi-daily watering and shade couldn't keep it alive. Don't know whether a more established plant would have resisted the heat, but this one sure didn't. Darn it, the most expensive bamboo that I have purchased.

Ch. gigantea looks wonderful, but I'm really wary of trying it in San Antonio.

My gigantea gets direct summer sun plus it gets some heat off my house. It's had no problem with temps in the 90's and the odd ball days in the 100's. ABS has it as a 5, full sun. ABS has the foliosa as a 3, 1/2 sun/shade. Rgds

It's not surprising that plants from Andean and Mexican cloudforests, where temperatures are constantly between about 50-70F and humidity is always high, are unable to adapt to continental climates such as Texas. The Chilean species, of course, come from a much more seasonal climate and are able to handle more cold, but it is not very hot there either. Certainly any Chusqueas that eventually prove to be growable back east will be the exception rather than the rule. But you can grow many heat and summer moisture loving bamboos more quickly and easily than we can on the west coast.

Here is a link that might be useful: Chusquea? at Machu Picchu

"scandescent"

Impressive, credible-looking word, but it doesn't exist in Merriam-Webster Unabridged, nor at dictionary.com, and only 10 hits on google.

Is it a legit word? what does it mean? in which dictionary?

The general rule re mountain clumpers where-ever their source is : they can take max heat as long as they can cool down at night. It's a matter of how cool it gets at night, not how hot it gets during the day. Rgds

I just made that word up. Looks like it stuck! I should invent more words.

Ian-
I kind of like "scandescent." With so many people murdering English, it's refreshing to see an intentionally made up word that actually has some thought behind it!

But the word scandent does show up alot when describing new world bamboo.

Yes: What was that about refreshment?

Fortunately none of the scandesceform Chusqueas exhibit leptomorphification.

What a difference a week makes. A few days after posting how unfazed by the heat my C. culeou looks it now looks half dead. Darn!

The supposedly cold hardy Buddha Belly also lost all but one leaf during that hot spell. Darn! Now I will never know if that vendor's claim of it surviving Indiana winters is true.

Arrow bamboo is continuing with its putting up a new shoot every couple of weeks. It has been doing this since early April. I was expecting it to have a shooting period. Is this normal?

Looks like I am going to lose a few more MOSO seedlings. On the bright side, I have a couple that seem to be sizing up nicely.