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9/07 New names for some Nepalese bamboos
Paper in Journal of The Botanical Research Institute of Texas 
As a step towards publishing an updated version of the Bamboos of Nepal, some changes have been made to the names of a few bamboos from the Himalayas. In Thamnocalamus this has been necessary to bring the species in line with those of China and elsewhere, in terms of how different a bamboo has to be before it is called a separate species. Some bamboos known previously as subspecies have been formally elevated to species. This has given a more satisfactory treatment to the genus Thamnocalamus, which now has 5 species from the Himalayas, T. spathiflorus, T. crassinodus, T. nepalensis, T. chigar, and T. occidentalis.
In addition, it has become apparent that the name Himalayacalamus asper was being applied to two separate species. The name H. asper should henceforth be applied only to a bamboo from the area near the Annapurna mountains of Nepal, which is still very rare in cultivation in Europe. It was first introduced into France by Muriel Crouzet in 1992, and more recently by Jean Merret. The young culm sheaths are more distinctly rough rather than just pubescent, and the leaf sheaths have small ciliate auricles and broader blades. A second introduction of this species to France has recently been given the name Drepanostachyum merretii. The name H. asper takes priority however, as it was published in 1994.
As the type collection designated for the name H. asper was a collection from the Annapurna area, a new name, Himalayacalamus planatus, had to be given to the bamboo from Langtang, introduced into England by Merlyn Edwards in 1971, and previously cultivated in Europe & in the US under the names Arundinaria microphylla, Neomicrocalacmus microphyllus and Himalayacalamus asper. The new epithet planatus, meaning level, reflects the very smooth culm nodes, which are scarcely raised at all.
When first considered a possible separate species and given a description in my 1991 PhD thesis, the name H. aequatus was coined, but it was not effectively published. That name has the same meaning as planatus but is harder to pronounce, and has consequently been dropped. The two species H. asper and H. planatus were merged together under the name H. asper in 1994 when H. asper was published, as the collections were not good enough to be absolutely sure that they were different species. The real H. asper was illustrated. Both of these species have become much better known while in cultivation in the west, and both have now flowered, so that vegetative and floral characteristics are known, and it is clear that they do indeed represent two separate species as first suspected.
The paper is available online at BRIT
3/07 Support for recognition of Cephalostachyum & Pseudostachyum
Paper in Taxon by Kunming Institute of Botany
An investigation into the molecular phylogeny of the subtropical genus Schizostachyum and its allies has been published in the international journal Taxon by researchers at the Kunming Institute of Botany in Yunnan. This follows their investigations into temperate bamboos reported in the classification section. Using two different genes they inferred relationships between representatives of these genera, and showed that there is strong justification for recognizing Cephalostachyum & Pseudostachyum as separate genera distinct from Schizostachyum.
Holttum, a British botanist working in Malaysia, later to become famous as a fern taxonomist at Kew, first suggested that Cephalostachyum, Teinostachyum & Pseudostachyum should be merged into Schizostachyum, and this was followed by many later authors, including Clayton & Renvoize at Kew in their overview of the grass family in 1986 and by Majumdar and others in India to this day. On the other hand, the smaller genera continued to be recognized by some others, for example in my treatments of Himalayan bamboos, and we followed this approach in the Flora of China. This latest research from China supports that decision, and also the recognition of smaller genera rather than larger groups, which are tending to be revealed as polyphyletic (descending from more than one common ancestor) by molecular analysis through DNA sequencing.
The full paper is available online at KIB
8/06 New treatment of native American bamboos
Paper in Journal SIDA describing a new, third species
Arundinaria appalachiana has just been described, bringing the total number of native N American bamboos to 3. After being advised by grass taxonomists, Floyd McClure in 1973 interpreted the bamboos native to the SE United States as a single species, A. gigantea, with two subspecies gigantea and tecta, and a hybrid between them, a treatment that has been followed for the past 30 years. Recent fieldwork, applying a better understanding of the importance of their vegetative characters such as the branching, backed up by molecular analysis, has shown that it is much more appropriate to go back to two full species, Arundinaria gigantea, River Cane or Giant Cane, and A. tecta, Switch Cane.
Hill cane, a smaller stature bamboo previously named as A. tecta var. decidua Beadle is described as a third, new species A. appalachiana Triplett, Weakley & L.G. Clark, indigenous to areas away from streams in the S Appalachian mountains.
What is most interesting to me is the similarity in appearance of the branching of the new species, A. appalachiana and that of Pseudosasa japonica from Japan (see right: P. japonica photo by C. Stapleton cf. A. appalachiana photo by J. Triplett). P. japonica has been resolved as the closest Asian relative of the native N American bamboos in recent molecular studies. This similarity in branching supports the molecular results. It also gives further indirect support to the recognition of the genus Sarocalamus. The inclusion of its species from W China and the Himalayas in Arundinaria along with the native N American bamboos, is hard to justify if nearly all other Asian bamboos, including Pseudosasa japonica, have been excluded (see item on Flora of China bamboo account below).
The paper was online at:
http://www.brit.org/sida/PDF/PDF22(1)/03_Triplett-etal_Arundinaria_79-95.pdf
but their websites are currently being reorganized
8/06 New names for cultivated species
Paper in journal SIDA describing a new Chinese species and other taxa
Several new names for bamboos in cultivation in the west have been published. They include Fargesia apicirubens, an apparently previously undescribed species from W China, which has been misidentified as F. dracocephala in cultivation (the real F. dracocephala having been grown as Fargesia sp. ‘Rufa’). Drepanostachyum falcatum var. sengteeanum is a new variety of the elegant D. falcatum from the Himalayas. Borinda angustissima, Borinda contracta, Borinda nujiangensis and Borinda utilis are all new combinations for species previously described in the genus Fargesia, but moved to Borinda on account of their flowers, vegetative characteristics or DNA sequencing. Indocalamus hamadae is a new combination for the interesting Japanese bamboo which has many characteristics distinctive of the otherwise Chinese genus Indocalamus, such as very large leaves, but has up to 3 branches rather than the solitary branch seen in the Chinese species.
The paper was online at:
http://www.brit.org/sida/PDF/PDF22(1)/16a_Stapleton_Bamboos_331-332.pdf
but their website is being reorganized, see my draft version Sida 22(1) draft
7/06 Publication of the Flora of China Bamboo Account
Collaborative treatment of Chinese woody bamboos in Vol. 22 Poaceae
The bamboo account for the Flora of China has been written, edited, and rearranged to follow a classification system that could be accepted by the Chinese authors and myself as the co-author. The treatment has seen the relegation of Sinarundinaria into synonymy of Fargesia and the recognition of many genera, such as Yushania, Himalayalacalamus and Drepanostachyum, which I felt were justified on molecular and morphological grounds. The genus Borinda has remained within Fargesia, for the time being, as we suspect there to be many species currently placed in Fargesia which are likely to need to be removed, but without further investigation we do not know which ones. This way at least they are all still in the same genus. The genus Sarocalamus has remained within Arundinaria as the molecular evidence suggesting that it has little connection with Arundinaria is as yet not very strong, while morphologically it is undoubtedly very similar. One surprising action, a change made after it had left my desk, is the adoption of the name Phyllostachys reticulata instead of P. bambusoides. I am not happy with that decision, as the name P. reticulata is not well typified, and the name P. bambusoides is in such widespread use for an economically extremely important bamboo.
The account can now be accessed online with all the keys functional (scroll down below the tribal description to get to the generic key, which is linked to genera and species accounts), or as a single pdf file to save locally.
6/06 Bamboo Phylogeny Group
NSF-funded project at Iowa State University & Idaho State University
Several recent investigations into the relationships between bamboo genera have been undertaken using modern techniques of molecular and morphological comparison. They have resulted in elucidation of some of the relationships. This has allowed development of classifications systems which are hopefully largely natural, such as that applied in the Flora of China bamboo account. However, they have been limited by the breadth of coverage of different genera and the use of different techniques in different studies. To address these shortcomings Lynn Clark of Iowa State University and Scot Kelchner of Idaho State University have obtained funding from NSF to work with colleagues from around the world in a group investigation that will cover a larger selection of bamboos in a more directly comparable fashion. A website has been established to allow contributors to standardize their coding of morphological characters. Results of the investigations will be posted on the website and it is intended that it will be expanded to link to other sources of information.
Meanwhile recent investigations into molecular phylogeny of Asian woody bamboos have been evaluated, and some of the most recent trees have been posted on this site as the basis for the best currently available phylogeny and classification of woody bamboos.
5/04 Bamboo Conservation
Launch of INBAR/UNEP reports
A joint investigation by INBAR (International Network for Bamboo and Rattan) and WCMC (World Conservation Monitoring Centre) of UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) into the distribution of forest bamboos has recently highlighted their high vulnerability to deforestation and the likelihood of extinctions. Their conservation is of great concern to INBAR & UNEP, who hope that further studies will be made into their taxonomy, distribution and conservation status. A report into the conservation status of bamboos of Asia in 2003 first identified and quantified this problem, which we had also discussed earlier in the journal Biodiversity & Conservation. A second report last year confirmed that the same situation prevails in Africa and S America, making this a problem of global dimensions, which was publicised at a formal launch of our reports. The 2 reports are both available on line from UNEP, but they are very large files, lavishly illustrated with maps showing distribution. A much more compact (2MB) PDF version of the first report without the maps is available here.
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