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Phyllostachys heterocycla pubescens |
We do not encourage people to plant running bamboos because some of these monopodial type bamboos are capable of spreading to forest proportions in a sympathetic environment. The only exception is the plantation bamboo Phyllostachys heterocycla pubescens, known in Japan as "Moso". This beautiful forest bamboo is an important commercial bamboo, but it does require proper management and control.
Running bamboos (monopodial or pluricaespitose) send out a number of long heavily rooted underground rhizomes each year. The reason they are slower initially to develop than clumpers is that the rhizome generally spends the next year producing mainly more rhizomes and adding to its own bulk, but in the third and fourth year it is capable of producing many culms along its length, not just one per rhizome as with a clumper. These runners are slower to start, but can spread very quickly over large areas unless their relatively shallow roots are contained, and when contained, they ultimately choke themselves to death by over-production of rhizomes filling and depleting the earth. (For this reason, Moso plantations are normally deep ripped in alternate 6 metre bands and heavily mulched about every 20 years to reinvogorate the production.)
Because most bamboos planted in this country have been runners up until now, this invasive quality has given bamboo a bad name in Australia, and some councils have considered banning bamboo without knowing the difference between clumping and running species. Clumping bamboos are predictable and easily controlled, whereas running bamboos are best grown in constructed garden boxes, on a water contained island, or in larger areas where mechanical equipment can be used to limit their spreading growth potential.
Another basic difference is the growing season. Clumping bamboos generally send up their new shoots during our late summer and autumn periods, and any unwanted shoots that are produced can be easily cut off close to ground level for cooking and storing. Running bamboos generally send up prolific numbers of new shoots during late winter and spring periods. One can attempt to control their spread, not normally successfully, by breaking off the shoots, as it doesn’t destroy the long underground "running" rhizomes, which continue to multiply and try and escape from the immediate area. To obtain the edible part of a running bamboo you normally dig down and remove the underground shoot as soon as the point is visible above ground, cutting it free where it joins the long running rhizome, as, unlike clumpers, it is the underground portion of the new running bamboo shoot that is least bitter and most edible.