I just found this on the ABS site and thought this could explain why there are so many seeds being offered but only a relatively few varieties.

. How do I get seeds to plant?

Bamboo flowers at irregular, and usually very lengthy, intervals. In some varieties the intervals can be longer than 50 years. Bamboo seeds are not readily available and there is no organized method for distributing them when a variety of bamboo does come into flower. You might ask at a bamboo specialty nursery if any bamboo has flowered recently and if they have seeds available. Here is the list of all bamboo nurseries we know of.

Someone recently showed pictures of B. Oldhamii producing seeds(Coolshare maybe??).

Seeds produced from a known bamboo will sometimes produce new offspring with different characteristics from the parent plant.

If you grow it from seed, an adult plant of B.lako, B. chungii, B. textilis, or D. asper Betung Hitam would be easy to distinguish since they all look very different as mature plants.

It is interesting to hear of seeds from particular bamboos especially when it is isolated cases. They are probably mislabeled as you mentioned. It is difficult enough to find bamboo plants that are correctly labeled at nurseries that are not bamboo nurseries. Lowe's and Home Depot sell bamboo that is mislabeled regularly.

Kt

"All of these species flowering and producing fresh, viable seeds at the same time? Or a frequent seed-producing flowering of one common bamboo species with little value"

so, D. strictus has little value for this nursery??
I think they are great looking boos.

Hmmmmm, yes you could have a point about those sellers selling seed as one plant but it really is another. On the flip side of that, there are many parts of the world where they are not active members of the ABS or any bamboo society so in fact these could be true.

So in a few years if these newest seedlings wind up looking just like the Strictus seedlings grown last year than oh well, I'm out just a few bucks.

As for the quote from that nursery, that holds true with any plant. Ones grown from seed will almost always have some slight variation and not necessarily be true to the parent. That is why quite a few plants are grown from vegetative cuttings.

Right, I'm ok with genetic variation within a species, I was just wondering if it's possible that I nurture my seedlings along for let's say 2 years, plant them in the yard and find out I've got a 100' runner instead of a 30' clumper.

Which leads me to another question...

I would assume (i know, I know) that plants within the same family (i.e. bambusa) could cross pollinate but could a bambusa cross with let's say D. Strictus?

Saw Oldhamii flowering at San Diego Zoo about 3 months ago - and there were actually seeds inside the husks. I did take any, so don't know of viability.

I am somewhat skeptical, however, at the proliferation of seeds available from somewhat rare to rare bamboos - Lako and Betung Hitam come to mind. Didn't see these until just recently. Just seems like maybe too much of a coincidence, but I guess we'll all find out once those seeds grow up (if they do, in fact, germinate).

I also know there is an unknown clumper in the St Augustine area that is flowering and in seed. I say unknown because it is on public land and not someone's yard and there have been guesses as to what species it is but no true ID to my knowledge.

So with that it is possible that someone somewhere may have a Lako or Asper in seed without it being a widespread/global flowering. Might be worth asking deeper questions such as seed source to be certain, though I know alot of sellers are careful not to reveal these things.