OTATEA ACUMINATA AZTECORUM (Mexican Weeping Bamboo)

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Probable height in Southern California within 3 years = 12'

Probable ultimate height in Southern California = 15'

Height in habitat = 20'

Loses leaves around 20 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit.

Loses canes around 10 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit.

Dies around 0 to 5 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'

Rhizome depth in moist soil = 18"

 

        Just because of its very attractive appearance this plant is one of the great Bamboos.  Its clumping habit with solid culms bending over from the weight of finely divided drooping leaves gives a pleasing feathery fountain-like effect.  Drought resistant, likes heat.  Loses its leaves at 22 degrees F., the rhizomes will probably take 0 degrees & still bounce back the next summer.  

        Tony Poncik at the San Antonio Zoo has plants that went down to 13 degrees & came back just fine.  Lily Ricardii in Mendecino, California where the temperature ranges from 17-65 degress F. has a very healthy plant.   Ken Brennecke in Ramona, Ca. says new shoots less than a year old die at 17 degrees but the mature shoots are just fine.   Jean Harrington in St Pete, Florida has a happy plant.

        Someone should do some hardiness testing in a cold climate, realizing both leaves & culms will be totally deciduous.   A good tub subject if the pot is kept quite moist, warm & sunny.   Prefers growing in alkaline soil in the ground, where it will soon produce a dense mass of mature culms unless you keep pruning it radically.

        Introduced into the U.S. from central western Mexico around 1958 by the L.A. Arboretum.   Bill Teague got a division of the plant from the Arboretum in 1966 & started propagating & distributing it to fellow collectors & nurserymen throughout southern California.  Botanists seem to change the name every year or so.  It was first called Arthrostylidium longifolium.  In 1973 Floyd McClure called it Yushania aztecorum.   In the 1980's Dr. Soderstrom called it first Otatea aztecorum, then Otatea acuminata. Finally Guzman, del Carmen Anaya & Santana from the University of Guadalajara described 2 subspecies, calling this one Otatea acuminata aztecorum.

        Some folks say it will grow from culm cuttings but we have not succeeded.  The plant started flowering & seeding in southern California in 1987 & we had plants still going to seed in 1990.  Jim Baumel, botanist at the L.A. Arboretum has observed the plants in habitat & feels there is a lot of variation in the flowering & seeding behavior of different plants, even though they come from the same source.   He feels some otateas flower & die, some do not flower at all, others flower but do not die.

        5 gallon seedling pots sold at ABS auctions for $120 in 1988, $50 in 1990 & $35 in 1991.