Phyllostachys edulis


Phyllostachys edulis, the bamboo, or tortoise-shell bamboo, or ,, is a temperate species of giant timber bamboo native to China and Taiwan and naturalised elsewhere, including Japan where it is widely distributed from south of Hokkaido to Kagoshima. The edulis part of the Latin name refers to its edible shoots. This bamboo can reach heights of up to. This particular species of bamboo is the most common species used in the bamboo textile industry of China and other countries, for the production of rayon. Moso is less cold-hardy than many Phyllostachys, surviving at a reduced height down to.

Ecology

Phyllostachys edulis spreads using both asexual and sexual reproduction. The most common and well known mode for this plant is asexual reproduction. This occurs when the plant sends up new culms from underground rhizomes. The culms grow quickly and can reach a height of . In mature individuals, the culms in young plants grow taller and wider in diameter as the general plant reaches maturity, but once the individual culm stops growing it will not grow again. P. edulis also flowers and produces seed, and it does so every half century or so, but it has a sporadic flowering nature rather than the synchronous blooming seen in some other bamboo species. The seeds fall from the mature culms in the hundreds of thousands and are quick to germinate. Mice, field rats and other rodents take notice of the bounty of seed, this results in the loss of many of the seeds, but within a few weeks the surviving few seeds would have germinated. The first culm from a seedling will not get much taller than around at most, and may be as thin as, but with every new season of culms sent up from developing rhizomes, the grove of plants will grow in height and cane diameter. Moso bamboo grows as much as in twenty-four hours. But because the culms of Moso are up to diameter, its volume growth is much greater than that of Phyllostachys bambusoides.
Polyporus phyllostachydis is a fungus species known from Japan, that grows on the ground on the living or dead roots of the bamboo.

Cultivation

Cultivars

Cultivars include:Phyllostachys edulis 'Bicolor'Phyllostachys edulis 'Kikko' or 'Kikko-Chiku' Phyllostachys edulis 'Subconvexa' Phyllostachys edulis 'Nabeshimana'

Biochemistry

Compounds isolated from P. edulis include: