Bamboo Identification - Common Genera

Common genera: quick recognition by photos

Common genera listed from the most widely cultivated, down to rarer genera
see also Vegetative Key to Cultivated Genera

Genus

Growth habit

Branching

Other

Phyllostachys

Spreading with spaced upright culms

2 (-3) asymmetrical branches of different sizes

Flowers with many bracts

Bambusa

Clumping, often large

Even branching with 3 main branches

Auricles (ears) may be large

Dense upright clumps

1 large or 3 erect branches

Smooth culms

Tight clumps

7 or more similar branches on smooth culms

Small dense inflorescences

Spreading and dense

Large single branches

Winter leaf edge death

Pleioblastus

Spreading, often small with striped leaves

Single branches

Persistent sheaths rot on culm

Semiarundinaria

Spreading and in tight clumps, erect

3 or more branches

Very smooth culms

Indocalamus

Large leaves

Long single branches

Thick soft scurf below nodes

Gigantochloa

Large culms, often striped, no low branches

Large central branch, big leaves

First spikelets large

Himalayacalamus

Tight clumps with coloured nodes

Central branch larger

Early branching through the sheath

Chimonobambusa

Spreading with spaced culms

3 similar branches

Nodes swollen or thorny

Small slowly spreading domes

4 similar branches

Single leaves

Spreading and dense

Many tight branches

Culms often scabrous below nodes

Dendrocalamus

Dense clumps of very large furry culms

Basal dormant central branch, aerial roots

Spherical inflorescences

Clumping blue-grey culms

Culms with fine vertical lines

A deciduous species in winter

Drepanostachyum

Dense narrow culms

Culm sheath interior hairy at top

Many small branches, and falcate flowers

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