Beautiful Bamboo (phyllostachys decora)

The Chinese refer to this species as “beautiful bamboo”. Strongly upright culms with dropping foliage. Culms turn orange-yellow when exposed to the sun. Capable of reaching full size quite quickly. Shoots are edible and rated good to excellent in quality. Wood is considered good in quality. Reported to grow as large as 35′ tall with 1-1/2 diameter culms in the U.S. A rugged species, it is reported to be especially resistant to drought and extremes of temperature. Grows well on sandy soil. Reported to do well in the intermountain West. This species has now been through two winters in our outdoor test plantings, and has shown very good cold hardiness. In both winters, we experienced extreme lows of -8° F along with extended periods of bitterly cold, windy weather. In a location sheltered from the wind,Phyllostachys decora suffered only minor leaf injury. In a more exposed location there was more leaf injury, but essentially no injury to the wood (culms and branches).