Pleioblastus variegatus(J.Dix) Makino

pygmy bamboo

WFO wfo-0000891181 Accepted WFO 2026-06 3 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–c · 1 observation

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 1 time, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Pleioblastus variegatus, photographed by Jason K.
fig. a Jason K., CC BY 4.0 / 2021-01-14 / obs. 110505845
Pleioblastus variegatus, photographed by Jason K.
fig. b Jason K., CC BY 4.0 / obs. 110505820
Pleioblastus variegatus, photographed by Jason K.
fig. c Jason K., CC BY 4.0 / obs. 110505830

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 1 botanical country

Regions where Pleioblastus variegatus is native: Japan Japan
Native distribution of Pleioblastus variegatus, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Japan JAP ASIA-TEMPERATE

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 69 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Arundarbor fortunei (Van Houtte) Kuntze
  • Arundarbor pygmaea (Miq.) Kuntze
  • Arundinaria fortunei (Van Houtte) Rivière
  • Arundinaria fortunei var. variegata (J.Dix) Bean
  • Arundinaria oroshimozasa R.Stover
  • Arundinaria pygmaea (Miq.) Makino
  • Arundinaria shibuyana (Makino ex Nakai) R.Stover
  • Arundinaria uyenoensis (Nakai) R.Stover
  • Arundinaria variabilis Makino ex M.Vilm.
  • Arundinaria variabilis f. glabra Ohwi
  • Arundinaria variabilis var. fortunei (Van Houtte) Houz.
  • Arundinaria variabilis var. pygmaea (Miq.) Makino
  • Arundinaria variabilis var. variegata Makino
  • Arundinaria variegata (J.Dix) Makino
  • Arundinaria variegata f. pubescens Makino
  • Arundinaria variegata f. tsuboii Makino ex I.Tsuboi
  • Arundinaria variegata var. oroshima Makino ex I.Tsuboi
  • Arundinaria variegata var. tsumorii Makino
  • Bambusa fortunei Van Houtte
  • Bambusa fortunei unranked vittatis Siebold
  • Bambusa fortunei var. aureostriata H.P.
  • Bambusa fortunei var. variegata H.P.
  • Bambusa maximowiczii Munro
  • Bambusa picta Siebold & Zucc. ex Munro

and 45 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol ARPY8. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.