MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



29 



to 2 cm. long, sometimes tapering into 

 an awn 4 mm. long, ciliate, appressed- 

 hirsute to canescent, rarely glabrous 

 except toward the base and margins, 

 faintly to clearly tessellate; rachilla 

 segments densely hirsute; palea scab- 

 rous on the keels. % — Forming 

 extensive colonies in low woods, river 

 banks, moist ground, southern Ohio, 

 Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Okla- 

 homa to North Carolina, Florida, and 

 Texas, mostly above the Coastal Plain. 

 Livestock eagerly eat the young plants, 

 leaves, and seeds, and canebrakes 

 furnish much forage. The young 

 shoots are sometimes used as a pot- 

 herb. The culms are used for fishing 

 rods, pipestems, baskets, mats, and a 

 variety of other purposes. Early trav- 

 elers speak of the abundance of this 

 species and state that the culms may 

 be as much as 2 or even 3 inches in 

 diameter. It is said that the plants are 

 easily destroyed by the continuous 

 grazing of cattle and by the rooting of 

 swine. 



2. Arundinaria tecta (Walt.) Muhl. 

 Switch cane. (Fig. 2.) Similar to A. 

 gigantea, the culms usually not more 

 than 2 m. tall, the sheaths more com- 

 monly as long as the internodes; au- 

 ricle at summit of sheaths only rarely 

 developed, the bristles 2 to 6 mm. 

 long, a very short firm erose to ciliate 

 membrane across the collar; blades on 

 the average a little longer and nar- 

 rower; inflorescence similar, the spike- 

 lets 3 to 5 cm. long, 6- to 12-flowered, 

 relatively compact and less com- 

 pressed than in the preceding ; glumes 

 obtuse to acuminate, often glabrous 

 or nearly so; lemmas scarcely keeled, 

 12 to 15 mm. long, glabrous or mi- 

 nutely canescent at the base, rarely 

 very faintly tessellate toward the 

 summit; the rachilla strigose. 91 

 —Forming colonies in swampy woods, 

 moist pine barrens and live oak woods, 

 and sandy margins of streams, 



Coastal Plain, southern Maryland to 

 Alabama and Mississippi. Two collec- 

 tions from northwest Florida appear 

 to be intermediate between the two 

 species. 



A great many exotic species of 

 bamboo have been introduced into 

 cultivation in the United States, par- 

 ticularly from China, Japan, India, 

 and Java. Arundinaria, Bambusa, 

 Cephalostachyum, Chimonobambusa, 

 Dendrocalamus, Gigantochloa, Guadua, 

 Indocalamus, Lingnania, Oxytenan- 

 thera, Phyllostachys, Pleioblastus, Pseu- 

 dosasa, Sasa, Schizostachyum, Semi- 

 arundinaria, Shibataea, Sinarundi- 

 naria, Sinobambusa, Sinocalamus, and 

 Thamnocalamus are the principal gen- 

 era represented. In southern Florida 

 the commonest introduced species are 

 Bambusa multiplex (Lour.) Raeusch., 

 B. bambos (L.) Voss, 6 B. vulgaris 

 Schrad. ex WendL, and Sinocalamus 

 oldhami (Munro) McClure ("Dendro- 

 calamus latijlorus" of California and 

 Florida gardens). Farther north, where 

 the minimum winter temperatures 

 are lower, Arundinaria simoni (Carr.) 

 A. and C. Riv., Phyllostachys aurea A. 

 and C. Riv., and P. bambusoides Sieb. 

 and Zucc. are the commonest, and in 

 regions where the winters are still 

 more severe Pseudosasajaponica (Sieb. 

 and Zucc.) Makino is the species 

 most commonly found in culti- 

 vation in the open air; escaped 

 in Philadelphia. In California, Sino- 

 calamus oldhami, Bambusa multiplex, 

 and several species of Phyllostachys 

 are about equally popular. The most 

 recent systematic treatment of the 

 species of bamboo cultivated in the 

 United States is that of Render. 7 



6 Contributed by F. A. McClure; see also 

 McClure, F. A. the genus bambusa and some of 

 its first-known species. Blumea Sup. 3. (Henrard 

 Jubilee vol.) : 90-112, pi. 1-7, 1946; and Young, R. A. 



BAMBOOS IN AMERICAN HORTICULTURE. Nat. Hort. 



Mag. 1945: 171-196; 274-291; 1946: 40-64; 257-283; 

 352-365, illus. 



7 Rehder, Alfred, manual of cultivated tree8 

 and shrubs. Ed. 2, 996 pp. New York. 1940. 



