Bamboo grove discovered

A couple of weekends ago I was at the community mulch pile, picking up a load of free mulch. There was another crazy gardener there -- the crazy ones are those that pick up loads of mulch in January -- and we started talking about bamboo. Okay, I started talking about bamboo, but he added something really significant to the conversation: he told me about a large bamboo "forest" (as he called it) just a couple of miles away.

I headed over there with my camera this weekend, and it didn't disappoint!

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While we were shoveling mulch, I told him that even without seeing the grove I was 95% sure that it was "Yellow Groove" bamboo (Phyllostachys aureosulcata). That's the most commonly-planted bamboo in the St. Louis area, and if it's a large, old planting that makes it even more likely that it's Yellow Groove.

The grove is hidden behind some scrubby bushes (probably bush honeysuckle) on the side facing the road, so it's a bit difficult to notice that anything unusual is here.

On the other side though (the west or southwest side) it's another story though:

This side gets lots of sun, which turns the culms yellow.

Of course you can't see this side unless you climb onto the base of a hill that is (was?) a landfill, so most people probably never see this. The landscape service does though, as I'm sure they're mowing hundreds of shoots down every spring.

I should have paced it off, but I'd estimate that this side of the grove is about 100' (30m) long:

click for much larger version to get full impact

The interior of the grove is something special, as there are probably not too many places in the St. Louis area where you can find a walk-through grove of bamboo. You'll see specimen plantings, but something large enough to almost "lose yourself" in? This is the first one I've ever seen.

There are many dead culms in here, which is to be expected on a wild planting (that isn't regularly maintained). I believe culms on this species live about 5 years, unless they're killed by extreme cold.

The west side is extremely dense and quite dark, the culms forming an impassible wall:

The floor was littered with discarded bamboo leaves, which is quite beautiful:

Some of the culms show the characteristic zig-zag in the lower parts:

The culms looked quite large, but I estimated that they were 1.5" or so thick. A couple of years ago I would have probably guessed 2" or more, but I've learned that culms always seem thicker than they actually are.

After getting this on the computer and holding up my hand to match the size, I measured that this one is 1-3/8" (3.5 cm), so even my educated guess was high. Still quite impressive -- until I see a 3" culm somewhere that is (a different species, in a warmer climate).

I never thought that there would be a walk-through bamboo grove just a few miles from my house!

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