BAMBUSA BEECHEYANA

Live canes         Dry canes        Huntington         Quail

Probable height in Southern California within 3 years = 30'

Probable ultimate height in Southern California = 50'

Height in habitat = 50'

Loses leaves around 15 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit.

Loses canes around 10 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit.

Dies around 5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit.

If growing in the ground it prefers to grow in full sun.

A clumping bamboo - rhizomes will not run sideways.

Minimum soil depth required for a healthy plant = 1'

Unrestrained rhizome depth in moist soil = 2'

 

            5" maximum culm diameter.  Fast growing clumper sends up thick arching, dark green culms in August-September which remain covered with white powder when young.  Named after Captain F.W. Beechey whose ship visited Macau, China in 1827 & first collected this plant.  Plants in Florida during the 1989 one-night low of 23 degrees showed leaf burn on 50% of their leaves but were healthy & immediately came back.  

            Has a tropical appearance with  big leaves, big rhizomes & roots, big canes which are charmingly a bit irregular arching over like a giant fountain.

            Paul But, in his book "Hong Kong Bamboo" said it is a source of edible summer shoots.  "These young shoots are fat & tasty. The long pendulous tips, like fishing rods cast into the air, are very poetic."  When the plants are grown for eating soil is mounded up on the base of the plants in order to keep the sprouts white & tender until they are dug.  Otherwise they become tough & their taste develops "bite". 

            Don't fantasize you can grow this one in a pot or on a small residential lot.  You'll end up dynamiting the pot & moving to Tahiti.   But if you have some room & if you want a really big, somewhat  civilized giant tropical Bamboo - this is it.