This is one of the best species for building and construction, because the culms are not only giant, but also have very thick walls. bambos: Commonly known as Giant Thorny Bamboo. Cold hardy to about 25º F, it can grow pretty well in climates like Southern California and Florida.ī. Poles can get 60-80 feet tall and 5-6 inches in diameter. The culms are known for their thick walls, making them a superior building material. It’s a big tropical clumper with long lower branches, but without the pesky thorns that you find on some other Bambusas. balcooa: This is a widely grown species in India and southern Asia, also cultivated commercially in Africa. But the nickname is more widely accepted with the following species. This can’t possibly be an exhaustive list, because in any region you are likely to find locals who refer to the largest bamboo in their area as “giant bamboo”. Here’s a list of some of the most popular varieties which go by that name. There are dozens of species that might qualify as timber bamboo, and there are several which are commonly known as giant bamboo. That’s why it’s actually pretty useful to use terms like timber bamboo and giant bamboo, even if they are not strictly scientific. If you include the cultivars and subspecies, you end up with a total of about 2,000 varieties of bamboo.Īs you can see, it’s pretty easy to lose track of your bamboo names and species. So the botanists can’t even agree on that. But these are arbitrary distinctions, with no sharp cut-offs.Īs for the botanical classification and taxonomy of bamboo, there are between 90 and 120 genera (plural of genus) of bamboo. Timber bamboo usually gets more than 40 or 50 feet tall, and very thick. Dwarf bamboo is usually no larger than 6 or 8 feet tall, and sometimes as short as 1 or 2 feet. Gardeners and bamboo growers like to divide them into dwarf bamboos, medium-sized bamboos, and timber bamboos. Most of the giant bamboos are clumpers, except for Phyllostachys.Īnother way to sort bamboos is by their size. This is a pretty useful and important division, because the different kinds of rhizome roots result in certain bamboos spreading, sometimes uncontrollably, while others naturally remain tightly clumped and well contained. Even so, this is really not a scientific distinction.Ī lot of people like to separate bamboo into two types: runners and clumpers. Giant bamboo is a pretty informal and generic label for what botanists more commonly classify as timber bamboo. Classification and Characteristics of Giant Bamboo Many of them come from tropical or subtropical climates, but even if you live in a more temperate zone, there’s probably some type of giant bamboo that will do well in your area. In the following article, we’ll consider the appeal of giant bamboo, and we’ll examine several of the most popular species commonly referred to as giant bamboo. But your results will vary, depending where you live and which species you are growing. That’s how big they get in their native habitat. As timber bamboos, they will typically grow anywhere from 50 to 100 feet tall, with mature culms at least 4-5 inches, and sometimes more than 10 inches in diameter. Most of these giant bamboos belong to one of the following genera: Bambusa, Dendrocalamus, Gigantochloa, Guadua or Phyllostachys. The term “Giant Bamboo” is actually a somewhat generic name for a host of timber bamboos of several different species. You’ve got the space for it, and you want to grow Giant Bamboo! But which species is that exactly? And will it grow well enough in your climate? And you’re finally ready to plant some bamboo. So you have yourself a nice piece of land, with ample sunshine and adequate rainfall.
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