BAMBOOS OF INDI A

Phyllostachys
Phyllostachys bambusoides
Phyllostachys bambusoides Sieb. and Zucc., Abh. Akad. der Phys. Wissensch Munchen 3: 745, tab.5, fig.3, 1843;
Gamble, Ann. Roy. Bot. Gard. Calcutta 7: 27, Pl. 27. 1896 and in Hook f., Fl. Brit. India 7: 386. 1897; Camus, Les
Bambusees 56. 1913; Kedharnath and Chatterjee, Indian For. 92: 429. 1966; Varmah and Bahadur, Indian For. Rec.
(n.s) Bot. 6: 4. 1980; Tewari, Monogr. Bamboo 121., 1992. (Fig. 67).
Phyllostachys reticulata sensu Koch., Dendr. 2(2): 350. 1873.
DESCRIPTION
A caespitose bamboo. Culms graceful, yellow, 2-4 m high, flattened at one side, 1-1.5 cm diameter, rarely attaining 2 cm
diameter, glabrous, smooth, polished, green with waxy ring below the nodes, disappears with age, internodes 20-30 cm
long. Culm-sheaths variable, yellowish-brown, back conspicuously purplish-brown or black spot and blotches; imperfect
blade lanceolate, less than 2 cm long, auricles usually 2, sometimes only one or entirely lacking with bristles; ligule 2-
4 mm high, laciniate. Leaves 4-6 at first, later only 2-3 remain, 12-16 cm long and 11-25 mm broad, linear, attenuate at
the base into a short petiole, long acuminate, setaceous at the apex; sheath with well developed auricles and long
bristles; ligule well developed, 2-3 mm high. Inflorescence consisting of multispiculate lanceolate spikes, 40 x 10-15 mm
long, bracts ciliate near the mouth, limb imperfect, foliaceous, large, ovate lanceolate, cordate 35 x 20 mm. Spikelets
20-25 mm, fertile flower 3-5, terminal flower imperfect; flower greenish; glumes 2, lower very large, sheath like, bluntly
truncate with a foliaceous green cordate blade, becomes smaller or disappears in the upper flowers, upper short, 7 mm
long, oblique, keeled, ciliate on the keels, few-nerved, those of the upper flowers longer and more unequal sided in
terminal spikelets, sometimes absent. Lemmas 20 x 7 mm, ovate-acuminate, main nerve strong, secondary nerves 5-6
77
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P. bambusoides -
Internodes
210