''Bambusa oldhamii'', known as giant timber bamboo or Oldham's bamboo, is a large species of

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, bu ...

. It is the most common and widely grown bamboo in the

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and has been introduced into cultivation around the world. It is densely foliated, growing up to tall in good conditions, and can have a diameter of up to .

Description

''Bambusa oldhamii'' grows to in height, with green culms reaching a maximum of in diameter. Shoots grow rapidly in warmer months. The branches are short and leaves long.

Taxonomy

It was first described by Munro in 1868, the

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wiktionary:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to a ...

collected in Taiwan by Oldham (after whom the species was named). It is grouped in the subgenus ''Dendrocalamopsis''. ''Dendrocalamus latiflorus'' is a misapplied name, under which it has been sold in the United States. It has also been confused with the related species ''B. atrovirens'' of

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...

in mainland China.

Distribution and habitat

''B. oldhamii'' is native to the island of

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

and to southern

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(

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

Guangxi Guangxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the People's Republic ...

Hainan Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...

). It is widely cultivated and has become naturalized in several places (

Ryukyu Islands The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yonaguni ...

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, Chiapas,

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, etc.)

Cultivation

It has been introduced into cultivation around the world; it is grown under glass in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, and in

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, and

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, where it is the most common clumping bamboo grown. The maximum height in cultivation varies with the temperature. It tolerates temperatures down to -7 °C (20 °F). In

and China, the young shoots of ''B. oldhamii'' are highly sought after due to their crisp texture and sweet taste. Cultivation in Taiwan has declined with many stands of bamboo converted to pineapple production, a number of subsidy and support programs have been established as the cultivated bamboo groves provide valuable wildlife habitat and their destruction challenges the endangered farmland green tree frog ( rhacophorus arvalis). The culms are used for furniture making, but are not suited to construction.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bambusa Oldhamii oldhamii Garden plants Endemic flora of China Plants described in 1868