I have had this vivax for a few years now, but only so often does it throw out a 'Black Spot' culm. In all, the grove has about 5 culms displaying the variation.
This variation of vivax is quite impressive when it comes to withstanding cold. I have had culms survive -12*F. I was also amazed to see it retain about 30% of its green leaves throughout that awful February of 07. My bissetii on the other hand was completely whitewashed.
I know a few others have this sport, are there any other reports of this being possibly more cold hardy than the species?
I've got/had vivax blackspot from 3 diff sources. Only one plant survived the spring of '07, which was a plant from Ned Jaquith, and it only has markings on the occ culm.
Kudzu9 has a plant however that all the culms seem to color up. He probably can't help with the cold hardiness question due to his mild NW winters.
It's a beautiful plant, but I'm havingh a hard time getting it established.
I think as the Jaquith plant matures I'm going to try to isolate rhizomes that have blacked culms, and see if I can get more consistent color.
David
David Arnold
Middle Tennessee Bamboo Farm
USDA zone 6b
Jake, having already killed one of these, I managed to obtain one of the Kudzu clones but it is too small to see any coloration - does the black come on the new culms before winter? The black is your photo looks just like what I see on numerous species after a cold winter, I have several now that have that type of black spotting but it was not there prior to winter. Just wondering if this may be cold induced as well or if it comes onto new culms quickly?
The markings have been there since the culm emerged last year. It is sporadic in the group though. Most don't have any, but a few do. This year's shoots are between 1-2' tall, but non of the lower sheaths have fallen off yet. Last year I got two culms with the markings, the year before none, and the year before that only one.
