Someone please explain "CLONE" bamboo

[Black Gold]

Someone please explain "clone" when referred to in bamboo.

Thanks,

CODY

[CadyG]

It's pretty much any plant that is propagated vegetatively; that is, new plants are made from the "parent" plant by taking cuttings, rhizomes with active culms on them, tissues that are cultured cellularly - any form of asexual reproduction from an individual plant to create genetically identical "offspring."

[needmore]

I use the word clone incorrectly quite often, for lack of memory of the proper word but it is what Cady said. For example, when I say many clones of A gigantea out there, what I really mean is that the species has flowered many times in many places and new groves are full of seedling forms - sort of the opposite of clone!

[foxd]

I use the word clone incorrectly quite often, for lack of memory of the proper word but it is what Cady said. For example, when I say many clones of A gigantea out there, what I really mean is that the species has flowered many times in many places and new groves are full of seedling forms - sort of the opposite of clone!

How about "many different clones of A. gigantea are out there"?

[Alan_L]

Instead of "clone", maybe "variant"?

[ghmerrill]

I think that in plant terms, it would be called a cultivar if its a variant of a recognized species, wouldn't it?

[Alan_L]

I think "cultivar" implies something with notable characteristics though. If you have two Yellow Grooves that don't appear to be different and have no unique characteristics but aren't from the same parent, "cultivars" doesn't seem right.

[Black Gold]

Ok.....being that, that was clear as mud....let me use it in a sentence and tell me if I'm using it correctly.

I buy one pot of Vivax from Lewis Bamboo and another from Acme Bamboo.....When they arrive I set them side by side in the yard and I now have 2 clones of Vivax.

vs.

I have a grove of Vivax that began as a 3 gallon pot of boo from Lewis Bamboo 10 years ago. I dig two culms from this grove and pot them separately. Iknow have two cultivers of Vivax bamboo.

CORRECT????

[ghmerrill]

Nope

More like aureocaulis, and black spot are cultivars of vivax, where if you dug two divisions from your grove, you would have two clones of your plant.

[ShmuBamboo]

From a botany/plant classification perspective:

A genus is a group of species that have specific similarities. For example, Phyllostachys is a genus of bamboos that have a sulcus, leptomorph (running) rhizomes, and a similar branching habit in pairs and sometimes threes.

A species is a particular plant type. Phyllostachys vivax is a species of bamboo, and it includes all the types, forms, sports, clones, cultivars and variations of vivax out there.

[ShmuBamboo]

Also, in botany, bamboo plants are classified as follows:

Kingdom: Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta (vascular plants)
Superdivision: Spermatophyta (seeding plants)
Division: Angiosperms (flowering plants)
Class: Monocots (plants with one seed leaf)
Subclass: Commelinidae (complicated division here)
Order: Cyperales (grasses and sedges)
Family: Poaceae (grasses)
Subfamily: Bambusoideae (woody and herbacious bamboos, and a bit of a muddy definition here)
Supertribe: Bambusodae (woody bamboos)
Tribe: Bambuseae (bamboos)
And under bamboos, we have:
*Subtribes: 9 in all, (Shibataeinae has most bamboo genus that I grow, including Phy. and Semi.)
Genus: Group of similar bamboo species (some are not so obvious or distinct, like Borindas and Fargesias, and are being moved around)
Species: specific bamboo
Sub-species: If there are any, not used for bamboos that I am aware of
Variety: Used for a bamboo that is slightly different from the species. The differences are not as slight as the differences in Form.
Form: Used for bamboos that have minor differences.
Cultivar: Culmfusing term, but generally used for commonly propagated (by seed or clone) varieties and forms (or types) of bamboos.

I have seen variety, form and cultivars bounced around a lot for bamboo labels and used interchangably. There are different names and terms used for all of the above in different parts of the world for bamboo. There are also several plant classification systems and differences in agreements between botanists regarding all types of bamboos it seems. *Note that the ABS has bamboo listed under the subtrible bambusinae, but that only consists of 10 genera, none of which I grow. That list has been picked up by a lot of other bamboo listings on the web, and so the culmfusion is spread.

[needmore]

As stated above, if you make a division of your plant that is a textbook clone. If you buy Vivax from Lewis and Vivax from Bamboo Garden there remains some possibility that both of THEIR plants came from the same parent plant in which case they would be the same - clones of a parent Vivax out there somewhere. But you have no way to know if theirs came from the same parent so it is possible that you could have 2 different forms of Vivax and they could perform differently.

[Markj]

Sub-species: If there are any, not used for bamboos that I am aware of

There's quite a few out their, one common one here is Thamnocalamus spathiflorus subsp, nepalensis - a rather nice one as well...