Fargesia robusta

T. P. Yi

Guai gun zhu

PoaceaeShoots
Fargesia robusta
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(c) UBC Botanical Garden, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA)
Fargesia robusta
iNaturalist · cc-by-nc
(c) onyx, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

What to Eat

Edible parts: Shoots

The shoots are eaten.

Where to Find It

It is a temperate plant. It grows in Sichuan in China between 1,700-2,800 m altitude.

Asia, China,

Countries: United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Brunei, Bhutan, China, Georgia, Indonesia, Israel, India, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Cambodia, North Korea, South Korea, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Laos, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Mongolia, Maldives, Malaysia, Nepal, Oman, Philippines, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Syria, Thailand, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Taiwan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen

How to Identify

A bamboo. It grows 2-7 m tall. The culms are 1-3 cm across. The internodes are 15-30 cm long. There are 15-20 branches at each node. There are 2-4 leaves on the last branch. The leaf blade is 6-23 cm long by 1-2 cm wide.

Wikipedia

Source ↗

Fargesia robusta is a species of clumping bamboo in the family Poaceae, native to Sichuan, China. Typically 3 m (10 ft) but reaching 4.5 m (15 ft), and with a narrow growth form, it has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit as an ornamental. A number of cultivars are commercially available, including 'Campbell', 'Pingwu' (Green Screen is derived from 'Pingwu'), 'Wenchuan', and 'Wolong'. It is a food source for giant pandas but grows at too low an elevation for them to exploit, unless there has been a die-off of their usual species. It is a member of the Fargesia spathacea species complex, and may not be a distinct species.

Notes

The shoots are eaten by the giant panda.

References (2)
  • Flora of China. Vol. 22, p 94 and Flora of China. www.eFloras.org
  • J. Bamboo Res. 4(2): 28. 1985

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