Much of the taxonomy of bamboo has been established by scientist in China, Japan, India, and other eastern countries where bamboo is much more prevalent. Some species may grow for up to 80 years before flowering. Since taxonomist use the flowers to identify most plants, there is some confusion over bamboo names and each year a species or two will have it’s name changed. One of the best places to find the latest names is the American Bamboo Society’s “Species List” Taxonomist have established the following taxonomy for bamboo:
KINGDOM: Plantae
PHYLUM (DIVISION): Magnoliophyta
CLASS: Liliopsida
SUBCLASS: Commelinidae
ORDER: Cyperales
FAMILY: Gramineae (Poaceae)
SUBFAMILY: Bambusoideae
TRIBE: Bambuseae
SUBTRIBE: bambusinae
Bamboos are further divided into genera and species. Most of the timber bamboos fall into the genus “Phyllostachys”.There are many different species of Phyllostachys. For example, the correct name for Black Bamboo is Phyllostachys nigra. Phyllostachy is the genus and nigra is the species. The genus is capitalized and the species is not. To make it a little more confusing there are different “forms” of some species. Phyllostachys nigra (Black Bamboo) has several “forms” or “cultivars” such as P.n. Henon and P. n. Bory, and P. n. Megurichiko.
Sometimes a form or cultivar will have some canes that revert back to the species. My large grove of Robert Young has big yellow canes. Each year a few solid green canes come up. These are Phyllostachys viridis. Robert Young is a cultivar of P. viridis. The cause of this lies in the genes and growth habits of bamboo and I don’t pretend to understand.. This is not the same as the bamboo plant creating a new, unique cultivar. This only happens when the bamboo flowers and produces seed. If the seed were planted, it is possible a new cultivar would show up amongh the thousands of new seedlings.