Borinda fungosa

A highly ornamental clumping bamboo from Central China where it grows at high altitude. It has a very beautiful weeping habit that arches and bends gracefully under the accumulating weight of the foliage. The individual leaves are a very pleasing lightish lime-green colour and form delicate fan-shaped clusters from the small branchlets which arise from the tops of the nodes. The culms turn darker with age and full sun and become a rich chocolate-brown or reddish-brown colour that is exceptionally beautiful and contrasts strongly with the lush green of the foliage. The resultant effect in a highly attractive zen-like plant - which although quite different - is reminiscent of the foliage pattern of Acer palmatum dissectum 'Viridis', the green weeping cut-leaf maple or laceleaf, and is perhaps even more beautiful, particularly as it sways in the wind.

Borinda fungosa is well suited to the cool moist British conditions which approximate the high-altitude montane forests it originates from. Water well during the summer months, keep mulched and be prepared to protect if necessary during the winter.