''Phyllostachys edulis'', the bamboo, or tortoise-shell bamboo, or (), (), () is a temperate species of giant timber

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...

native to China and Taiwan and naturalised elsewhere, including Japan where it is widely distributed from south of

Hokkaido is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...

Kagoshima , is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 583,966 in 285,992 households, and a population density of 1100 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Etymology While the ...

. The ''edulis'' part of the Latin name refers to its edible shoots. This bamboo can reach heights of up to . This particular species of bamboo is the most common species used in the

bamboo textile Bamboo textile is any cloth, yarn or clothing made from bamboo fibres. While bamboo was historically used only for structural elements, such as bustles and the ribs of corsets, in recent years various technologies have been developed that allow ...

industry of China and other countries, for the production of

rayon Rayon, also called viscose and commercialised in some countries as sabra silk or cactus silk, is a semi-synthetic fiber made from natural sources of regenerated cellulose fiber, cellulose, such as wood and related agricultural products. It has t ...

. Moso is less cold-hardy than many ''Phyllostachys'', surviving at a reduced height down to .

Ecology

''Phyllostachys edulis'' spreads using both asexual and sexual reproduction. The most common and well known mode for this plant is asexual reproduction. This occurs when the plant sends up new culms from underground rhizomes. The culms grow quickly and can reach a height of (depending on the age and health of the plant). In mature individuals, the culms in young plants grow taller and wider in diameter as the general plant reaches maturity, but once the individual culm stops growing it will not grow again. ''P. edulis'' also flowers and produces seed, and it does so every half century or so, but it has a sporadic flowering nature rather than the synchronous blooming seen in some other bamboo species. The seeds fall from the mature culms in the hundreds of thousands and are quick to germinate. Mice, field rats and other rodents take notice of the bounty of seed, this results in the loss of many of the seeds, but within a few weeks the surviving few seeds would have germinated (see predator satiation). The first culm from a seedling will not get much taller than around at most, and may be as thin as , but with every new season of culms sent up from developing rhizomes, the grove of plants will grow in height and cane diameter. Moso bamboo grows as much as in twenty-four hours. But because the culms of Moso are up to diameter, its volume growth is much greater than that of '' Phyllostachys bambusoides''. '' Polyporus phyllostachydis'' (Sotome, T. Hatt. & Kakish.), is a fungus species known from Japan, that grows on the ground on the living or dead roots of the bamboo.

Cultivation

Cultivars

Cultivar A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...

s include: * ''Phyllostachys edulis'' 'Bicolor' * ''Phyllostachys edulis'' 'Kikko' or 'Kikko-Chiku' (syn.: ''Phyllostachys edulis'' var. ''heterocycla'') * ''Phyllostachys edulis'' 'Subconvexa' (syn.: ''Phyllostachys heterocycla'' f. ''subconvexa'', ''Phyllostachys pubescens'' 'Subconvexa') * ''Phyllostachys edulis'' 'Nabeshimana' (syn.: ''Phyllostachys heterocycla'' f. ''nabeshimana'', ''Phyllostachys pubescens'' f. ''luteosulcata'')

Biochemistry

Compounds isolated from ''P. edulis'' include: *

Hydroxycinnamic acid Hydroxycinnamic acids (hydroxycinnamates) are a class of aromatic acids or phenylpropanoids having a C6–C3 skeleton. These compounds are hydroxy derivatives of cinnamic acid. In the category of List of phytochemicals in food, phytochemicals tha ...

sIdentification and Antioxidant Activity of Novel Chlorogenic Acid Derivatives from Bamboo (''Phyllostachys edulis''). Mee-Hyang Kweon, Han-Joon Hwang, and Ha-Chin Sung, J. Agric. Food Chem., 2001, 49 (10), pp 4646–4655
/ref> ** ''p''-coumaric acid **

caffeic acid Caffeic acid is an organic compound with the formula . It is a polyphenol with a key role in scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated in energy metabolism. Caffeic acid is also one major polyphenol responsible for maintaining normal le ...

** ferulic acid *

Chlorogenic acid Chlorogenic acid (CGA) is the ester of caffeic acid and quinic acid, functioning as an intermediate in lignin biosynthesis. The term chlorogenic acids refers to a related polyphenol family of esters, including hydroxycinnamic acids ( caffeic a ...

s **

chlorogenic acid Chlorogenic acid (CGA) is the ester of caffeic acid and quinic acid, functioning as an intermediate in lignin biosynthesis. The term chlorogenic acids refers to a related polyphenol family of esters, including hydroxycinnamic acids ( caffeic a ...

(3-(3,4-dihydroxycinnamoyl)quinic acid) ** 3-O-(3'-methylcaffeoyl)quinic acid ** 5-O-caffeoyl-4-methylquinic acid ** 3-O-caffeoyl-1-methylquinic acid (, exact mass : 368.110732). *

Flavone Flavone is an organic compound with the formula . A white solid, flavone is a derivative of chromone with a phenyl (Ph) substituent adjacent to the ether group. The compound is of little direct practical importance, but substituted derivatives, ...

s ** tricinAntioxidant properties of major flavonoids and subfractions of the extract of ''Phyllostachys pubescens'' leaves. Guo, X. F., Yue, Y. D., Tang F., Wang, J., Yao, X. (2012). Journal of Food Biochemistry
/ref>''Phyllostachys edulis'' Compounds Inhibit Palmitic Acid-Induced Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein 1 (MCP-1) Production. Higa, J. K., Liang, Z., Williams, P. G., & Panee, J. (2012). PLOS ONE, 7(9), e45082.
/ref> ** 7-O-methyltricin **

Glycosylated Glycosylation is the reaction in which a carbohydrate (or ' glycan'), i.e. a glycosyl donor, is attached to a hydroxyl or other functional group of another molecule (a glycosyl acceptor) in order to form a glycoconjugate. In biology (but not ...

flavones ***

orientin Orientin is a flavone, a chemical flavonoid-like compound. It is the 8-C glucoside of luteolin. Natural occurrences Orientin is found in '' Adonis vernalis'', in ''Anadenanthera colubrina'' and ''Anadenanthera peregrina'', and in the ''Phyllos ...

*** isoorientin *** vitexin *** isovitexin *** 5,7,3'-trihydroxy-6-C-β-D-digitoxopyranosyl-4'-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl flavonoside *** 5,3',4'-trihydroxy-7-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl flavonoside *** 5,4'-dihydroxy-3',5',-dimethoxy-7-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl flavonoside *** 5,7,3',4'-trihydroxy-6-C-(α-L-rhamnopyranosyl- →6-β-D-glucopyranosyl flavonoside

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=May 2024 edulis Flora of China Flora of Taiwan Flora of Japan Taxa named by Élie-Abel Carrière