BAMBOOS OF INDI A

Ochlandra
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hairy beneath scabrous on margins, tip twisted and
hair-like; midrib narrow, secondary veins 5-7 pairs,
intermediate 6-7, pellucid glands many; 3-6 mm long
petiole; sheath smooth with short decurrent auricles,
fringed with long stiff curved bristles. Inflorescence
a short terminal or axillary spike on leafy branchlets.
Sterile spikelets in heads, smaller than the fertile,
rachis smooth, spikelets cylindric, tip pointed, clothed
with white hairs. Spikelets 1.8-2.2 cm long, empty
glumes 3, hairy, 0.7-1.3 cm long, many-nerved, ovate,
acute and mucronate. Flowering glume larger,
glabrous, acute at the apex 2.4 cm. Palea more or
less same length of lemma, membranous manynerved,
acute at the tip. Lodicules 5, 1.3-1.4 cm long,
3-6-nerved, 3 of them bifid. Stamens many, 26-32,
exserted, filaments free, short; anthers 1.2-1.5 cm
long. Ovary narrow, glabrous; style surmounted by
perigynium, at the tip 5 plumose stigmas, 3 long and
2 short. Caryopsis oblong, 6.8 x 1.3 cm, fleshy
pericarp, glumes persistent, beak 3 cm long.
FLOWERING
➤
O. setigera - A clump
For the first time, flowering was reported from Nilambur in 1988 and
subsequently in 1994 (Chand Basha and Kumar, 1994).
DISTRIBUTION AND ECOLOGY
The species is endemic to Western Ghats. Restricted in distribution, found in
Tamil Nadu (Nilgiris) and Kerala (Nilambur) at an elevation of 1000 m and
above.
ANATOMY
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Sub-epidermal layers are mostly sclerenchymatous showing no distinct
demarcation between fibrous and fibro-vascular bundles in the peripheral region.
In the mid-part of the ground tissue bundles are of Type I. The innermost
bundles lining the cavity are of Type II. Fibre strands absent in the inner region
(Bhat - unpublished).
USES
Local people use the culm of this species for tying bundles of firewood, basket
and mat making. Leaves are used as fodder.
➤
O. setigera - New shoots
➤O. setigera - Internode and branches
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