NATIVE RANGE: East Asia (China)

FIRST FINDING IN SLOVENIA: 1950

PATHWAYS: horticulture

POSSIBLE TO FIND: year-round

FLOWERING TIME: Flowers only every 65 to 120 year. In Slovenia, it has not been flowering yet. 

DESRIPTION: Altogether there are over 1000 bamboo species. The running bamboos of the genus Phyllostachys can be distinguished by having pairs of branches on alternating sides of the cane and by distinct vertical grooves on younger canes. The leaf-blade is narrower at the base and appears as if it has a stalk. All are bush-like to tree-like evergreen plants with slender stems. Taller stems are often arched. Bamboos spread via rhizomes and only flower each 65 to 120 years.

HABITAT: Riparian habitats, forest edges, forests. Some species are able to form single-species bamboo forests.

STATUS: Often cultivated, sometimes planted in semi-natural environments. Invasive, particularly in warmer areas and forming dense stands. In Slovenia, several cultivated species are grown in gardens. Of these, only two have been naturalized: Black bamboo (P. nigra) and Fishpole bamboo (P. aurea). Both are most common in the Submediterranean climate zone, where they locally form impenetrable stands. 

SIMILAR SPECIES: Spanish reed (Arundo donax), which is native in eastern and southern Asia, and probably in parts of Africa, has blue-green leaves that clasp the stem broadly with a heart-shaped, hairy-tufted base. Common reed (Phragmites australis) does not grow more than 3 metres high and has unbranched stems.

SOURCE: Field Guide to Invasive Alien Species in European Forests