Native Plants

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Sunday - December 16, 2012

From: Scroggins, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Grasses or Grass-like
Title: Native bamboos from Scroggins TX
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

Can you please recommend a NATIVE bamboo for NE Tx? We live in the Piney Woods in a lake community.

ANSWER:

There are only two native bamboo taxa in Texas: Arundinaria gigantea (Giant cane) and A. g. ssp. tecta. Both can be found in NE Texas, but only A. g. ssp. gigantea is used much horticulturally. Arundinaria gigantea ssp. tecta is a subspecies that grows only in swamps and perpetually moist soils. This USDA Plant Profile shows that, while it is not recorded as growing natively in Franklin County, it does so just north in Red River County.