Varieties and Distribution in China

Generally, the spreading or running bamboos are found in the more temperate climates. The clumping bamboo is of more tropical or montanic areas. People may walk through a forest of spreading bamboos while clumping bamboos stand tightly form thickets of canes that are impossible to walk through without cutting your way first. As the spreading bamboo needs plenty of space to form a grove, the best way to enjoy spreading bamboos in the garden is in pots or in a designated area with the bamboo contained by rhizome barrier.
The species often mentioned together with the giant panda is Gelidocalamus fangianus, but Fargesia spathacea, Sinarundinaria chungii, Sinarundinaria nitida, and Sinarundinaria fangiana are common bamboos in the panda's home---Sichuang province in China.
As a central area of bamboo distribution, China is one of the countries with abundant bamboo resources, long bamboo planting history as well as high bamboo yield. Its bamboo acreage occupies 1/5 of the totality in the world. Clumping and spreading bamboos approximately halve China’s bamboos. Due to its weak resistance to coldness, clumping bamboo is limited to the southern part of China where the climate belongs to subtropical zone. To be concrete, clumping bamboos are mainly found in Guangdong province, Jiangxi province, Hunan province and Zhejiang province, etc. More adaptable to cold and dry environment, spreading bamboos have a much wider distribution covering both the south and north China. Ten “Bamboo Hometowns” of China are Anji county and Linan city in Zhejiang province, the city of Jianou and the county of Shunchang in Fujian province, the county of Guangde in Anhui province, the county of Taojiang in Hunan province, the county of Guangning in Guangdong province, Chishui city of Guizhou province and two counties in Jiangxi province---Yifeng and Congyi. Most of them are located in the southeast China where transportation is convenient and the investment environment is favorable.