Albino Bamboo

[SMiles]

I was wondering if anyone has ever seen albino bamboo... I have a bamboo forest that is all regular green bamboo, but this year I have two plants that have come up totally white... white stalk, white leaves, everything white. In 15yrs of growing bamboo this is the first I have ever seen like this. I was just curious as to how rare or common this is. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

[thomas]

Honestly, I wasn't even aware of plant albinism.

There's a little bit of info on white bamboo here:

Plant albinism

Albinism in plants is partial or complete absence of green chlorophyll pigment, which is essential for any plant to produce sugars.

cold-hardy.com

Albino bamboos will perish in around two or three weeks. I might try to keep them around for a while longer, using lightly sugared water solution and foliar feeding. The albinism is supposed to be unconditional, without a chance for the seedlings to somehow restart chloroplast production. I will try to foliar feed those seedlings with plant matter from healthy bamboo leaves. If the theory about plant lacking triggering hormone is right and if those hormones can travel into the albino seedlings through the leaf via diffusion or through stomata, perhaps introducing the albino seedling to hormones from healthy leaves can trigger the plants to start producing green photosynthetic pigment and avoid certain death.