dwarf bamboo identification

[herbarium]

I seem to be having great dificulty in the identification of the species of the genus Pleioblastus. If anyone can offer references of help in the problem, I will be most grateful

[Daniel Mosquin]

Hello,

My suggestion is to contact Dr. Lynn Clark of Iowa State University. One of her graduate students, Jimmy Triplett, recently presented at the American Bamboo Society Conference on "An Overview of Systematics and Evolution of Pleioblastus - The genus Pleioblastus Nakai is a group of approximately 42 species of temperate woody bamboos endemic to Japan, China and Vietnam..."

Since they're looking at the systematics of the group, they are likely to have the one of the best set of references in North America.

Best of luck,
Daniel

[Bamboo collector]

There is now a website on how to identify bamboo plants. It has lots of information on how to ID bamboos and links to online databases as well as publications and books.

http://bamboo-identification.co.uk

Hope it helps!