Priority species of bamboo and rattan - Bioversity International

USES: It is used for a variety of purposes: building, culm is comparable with best timber,
used most commonly, fencing, scaffolding, furniture, handicrafts, paper and pulp, ornamental,
edible shoots of average to poor quality, medicinal value, planted for soil conservation.
RESEARCH NEEDS:
1. Quality and durability need to be improved since it is easily attacked by insects,
limited germplasm collection in Sumatra.
2. Studies on adaptability, matching the variety with soil type.
3. Studies on variability and germplasm in various countries.
4. In vitro conservation, tissue culture for rooting of shoots.
5. Use in degraded areas.
Cephalostachyum pergracile (= Schizostachyum pergracile)
Common name: Tinwa bamboo
This is a medium-sized densely growing bamboo up to 7–30 m tall; culms have thin
walls, leaf linear lanceolate, 10–35 x 1.5–6.0 cm; flowering gregarious or sporadic, few
or no seeds in sporadic flowering plants; inflorescence long, drooping, fruits ovoid 1
cm long. Vegetative propagation by culm cutting. Tissue culture work done.
DISTRIBUTION: N E India, Nepal, Myanmar, Northern Thailand and Yunan Province,
China, cultivated elsewhere (Fig. 9).
CLIMATE AND SOILS: C. pergracile occurs in semi-humid to semi-arid regions on a
range of soils, it is most common in well-drained loamy soils in Myanmar.
CURRENT RESEARCH: Some work on the identification of varieties using isoenzymes
has been carried out. Cytology, 2n=72, 48, 54, 60, Hexaploid.
CONSERVATION: Need attention.
USES: Structural timber, light quality, used largely for buildings, thatching and walling,
general purpose furniture, handicrafts, but also for matting, basket making and
temporary construction, horticultural value, culms used for cooking.
RESEARCH NEEDS:
1. Population survey;
2. Genetic analysis;
3. Selection of superior plants;
4. Germplasm collection;
5. Genetic erosion is very high in certain countries.
6. Improved methods for seed storage.
PART I 27
Dendrocalamus asper (= Bambusa aspera, Gigantochloa aspera,
Dendrocalamus flagellifer, Dendrocalamus merrillianus)
Common name: Giant bamboo, Bamboo Betung
This is a large bamboo with culms 20–30 m tall; lower nodes covered with a circle of
rootlets; internodes 20–45 cm long with a diameter of 8–20 cm and with relatively thick
walls (11–20 mm), but thinner towards the top of the plant; leaf 30 x 2.5 cm; inflorescence
long, clustered pseudo spikelets, flowers sterile, fruits collected from hybrids. Vegetative
propagation – culm and branch cutting.