BAMBOOS OF INDI A

Sinarundinaria
➤
Fig. 104. S. polystachya. A - leafy branch; B - flowering branch;
C - spikelet; D - flowering glume; E - palea; F - lodicules; G - stamen;
H - pistil.
DESCRIPTION
A shrubby bamboo. Culms ca. 4 m high, soft;
branchlets many, fasciculate. Leaves ca.20 cm
long and 3.5 cm broad, rounded and attenuate
at the base into a very short petiole, ending
above into a twisted setaceous point, rough
above, smooth beneath, scabrous on one edge;
midrib prominent, broad; secondary veins 5
pairs, conspicuous, intermediate 5, transverse
veinlets inconspicuous; leaf-sheath striate,
glabrous, ending into a broad bifid callus with
deciduous oral setae, greenish-yellow; ligule
long, striate, blunt, fimbriate. Inflorescence
an axillary panicle on leafy branches; spikelet
ca. 1.8 cm long, pedicellate, 5-flowered, upper
flower empty; rachilla ca. 4 mm long, clavate,
white bearded; empty glumes 2, membranous,
ovate, acuminate, tip hairy, outer glume ca.
6 mm long and 1.5 mm broad 5-nerved;
inner glume ca. 7 mm long and 2 mm broad,
7-nerved; lemma ca. 8 mm long and 3.0 mm
broad, ovate-acuminate, ciliate at the tip and
on the upper margin, 9-nerved; palea slightly
longer than lemma, 2-keeled, ciliate on the
keels, tip bifid and mucronate, 1-nerved
between and 1-nerved on either side of the keel; lodicules 3, ca. 3 mm long, 2 ovate-obtuse, 1 ovate-acute and narrower
than the other two, fimbriate. Stamens 3; anther long, basifixed, brown, tip shortly apiculate; filament short, flexuose.
Ovary oblong-ovoid, glabrous; style divided with 2 plumose stigmas.
FLOWERING
Flowering has been recorded from Sikkim in 1868, 1897, 1898 and from Khasi Hills in 1876 and the flowering cycle is
about 30 years.
DISTRIBUTION AND ECOLOGY
This species is distributed in North-East India; Meghalaya (Khasi Hills) and Sikkim. Distributed mostly in warm
temperate to subtropical zone. It usually grows on dry hills, ridges or rocky slopes and occasionally near the streams.
Distributed at an elevation of 900-1600 m.
ANATOMY
line 104
Leaf epidermis has short cells in rows of 3-5 on costal and solitary in the intercostal region. Shape of silica bodies Oryza
type. Bulliform cells, arm cells, macrohairs, microhairs and prickles present. Microhairs present on both surfaces of
epidermis (Sharma et al., 1986).
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