BAMBOOS OF INDI A

Bamboos of India
Dendrocalamus hookeri
Dendrocalamus hookeri Munro, Trans. Linn. Soc. London 26: 151. 1868; Gamble, Ann. Roy. Bot. Gard. Calcutta
7: 83. 1896; Brandis, Indian Trees 677. 1906; Bennet and Gaur, Thirty Seven Bamboos Growing in India 55. 1990;
Tewari, Monogr. Bamboo 66. 1992. (Fig. 31).
VERNACULAR NAMES
Assam - Seiat, Sejsai, Sijong, Ukotang, Ussey; Jaintia - Siejong, Khasi - Denga; Lepcha- Patu; Manipur - Ooei; Nepal -
Tili bans.
DESCRIPTION
➤
line 31
Fig. 31. D. hookeri. A - leafy branch; B - flowering branch; C - culm-sheath;
D - spikelet; E - palea of lower flower; F - palea of uppermost flower;
G - stamen; H - pistil; I - young shoot; J - a portion of culm.
A large tufted bamboo. Culms 15-20
m high, 10-15 cm diameter, dark green,
usually naked below, curving branches
above, with many long internodes 40-
50 cm long, rough, hairy; walls ca. 2.5
cm thick. Culm-sheaths 20-30 cm long,
ca. 40 cm broad at the base; sheaths of
upper nodes narrower, densely covered
with black or brown hairs outside,
glabrous inside; ligule 5-8 mm high,
glabrous, serrate; auricles 2, small,
rounded, with long stiff ciliae; blade 8-
18 cm long, triangular cuspidate, hairy
above. Young shoots covered with black
tomentum, blade stiff and pointed with
long bristles at the margins. Leaves
large, oblong-lanceolate, with a long
acuminate tip, smooth above, rough
below, hairs scattered near the base,
scabrous on the margin, base oblique
and rounded, short-stalked; leaf-sheath
striate. Inflorescence a large compound
panicle bearing at intervals of 5-7 cm,
dense globular heads of spikelets of ca.
2.5 cm diameter. Spikelets 7.5-10 mm
long and 2.5 mm broad, ovate, acute,
minutely pubescent; empty glumes 2,
ovate, blunt; fertile flowers 2 to 3;
flowering glumes ovate, acute, with
113