BAMBOOS OF INDI A

Bambusa
FLOWERING
Flowering is reported from Manipur during 1987-88 (Sharma - personal communication).
DISTRIBUTION
The species is distributed in Irong (Manipur), Petsut and Naba Katha Districts of Myanmar.
Bambusa longispiculata
Bambusa longispiculata Gamble ex Brandis, Indian Trees 668, 1906; Camus, Les Bambusees, 116. 1913; Varmah
and Bahadur, Indian For. Rec. (n.s.) Bot. 6(1):2. 1980; Tewari, Monogr. Bamboo 41. 1992. (Fig. 14).
VERNACULAR NAMES
Bengal - Metenga; Burma - Thaikwa.
DESCRIPTION
Culms 10-15 m high, 7-10 cm in diameter, green in fairly open clumps; nodes slightly thickened, with a circular band of
white pubescence above and occasionally lower few nodes have an additional narrow circular band below; internodes
30-70 cm long. Young shoots grayish green with dark brown hairs; blades leathery, acute. Culm-sheaths 16-25 cm long
and 16-30 cm broad, generally covered with brownish-black appressed hairs; blade broadly triangular, cordate, erect,
hairy within, the base narrowed to a wavy fringed band along the upper edge of the sheath; ligule 4 mm high, entire or
lacerate, ciliate; auricles unequal, prominent, falcate, with bristles, deciduous. Leaves 18-30 cm long and 2.5-6.5 cm
broad, linear-oblong, glabrous above, whitish below. Inflorescence erect, often branching; spikes 28-38 cm long; spikelets
polished, compressed in the axils of long coriaceous sheaths without a blade. Empty glumes 2, fertile, 15-30, 2.5 cm
long.
FLOWERING
Cultivated plants flowered in Europe during 1912. In Bangladesh, it flowered sporadically during 1978-85 and gregariously
during 1983-85.
DISTRIBUTION
The species is found in Mizoram (India), Bangladesh, Thailand and Myanmar growing up to an altitude 1000 m.
Cultivated in Indian Botanic Gardens, Calcutta and Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun. Fairly common in the
villages of Bangladesh (Alam, 1982).
CHEMISTRY
Eight peroxidase isoenzymes were separated. First three bands of low mobility were dark, the two bands of medium
mobility were medium intense and the remaining three bands were light (Lalitha Kumari et al., 1985).
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