THYRSOCALAMUS LIANG

Description

From Bamboos of Thailand, Native and Introduced Species (Poaceae: Bambusoideae) — An Annotated Compilation, by D. Ohrnberger (Khun Dieter – คุณดีเท่อร์)

(1) Habit tight caespitose. Rhizome pachymorph, 10–30 (50) cm long; neck short. Culms erect, straight, 10–15 m tall, slightly bending outwards above. Young shoots covered with minute soft pale hairs, blades erect, dark colored; emerge from June to September. Culm-internodes terete, (20) 25–35 (39) cm long on the mid-culm, diameter 3–5 (6.5) cm [to 7.6 cm was recorded]; usually mid-green to dark green, glabrous, almost glossy, occasionally very thinly covered with white waxiness throughout, or most internodes of the basal and lower culm scattered with soft short silvery-white hairs when young, sometimes developing with age into an extended permanent whitish surface on basal internodes only; thick-walled, basally solid. Culm-nodes flat or slightly prominent, glabrous, with a narrow, 4–6 mm wide light gray band below and above the sheath scar on young culms; supranodal line obscure; occasionally with a few short aerial roots on the first or first two basal nodes; without thorns. Branch-buds solitary, elliptic to subrotund, broader than tall, from the first basal node up. Branches initially 3, the central one dominant, with two subdominant branches, and, on the upper culm, additional but slender branches develop, all together to about 10; without branches on the basal and lower nodes, buds usually remain dormant on the first 14–20 nodes in mature clumps; branching intravaginal; rebranching, but the buds on the first few branch nodes usually remain dormant. Culm-leaves deciduous, but the lowermost sheaths may remain tightly or loosely attached to the culm and decay on it. Culm-leaf sheaths 30 (40) cm long, 15–20 cm wide near the sheath base, almost as long as or a little longer than the internode, rigid, scattered with short soft shiny silvery-white to light brownish appressed hairs when young, dull light brownish and nearly glabrous when dry; margins short pale ciliate when young, entire when dry; apex horizontally truncate, 2–4 cm wide. Culm-leaf auricles inconspicuous, waved, very short and very low rims, blackish when young, rarely with a few very short pale early caducous bristles. Culm-leaf ligule as wide as the sheath apex, dark brown, the base short, 3–5 mm high, irregularly fringed, fringes short, ca. 2–6 mm high. Culm-leaf blades thickly papery, usually persistent to the sheath, erect at the lower and mid-culm, slightly spreading at the mid-culm and upper culm, triangular, darker than the sheath when young, the base of the blade two-thirds as wide as the sheath apex. Foliage-leaves 5–8 (12) per branchlet. Foliage-leaf sheaths light green when young, dull straw-colored when dry, glabrous; margins eciliate. Foliage-leaf auricles none, bristles none. Foliage-leaf ligule inconspicuous, less than 1 mm high, entire. Foliage-leaf blades thinly papery, dull mid-green to dark green, glabrous on both surfaces, small and narrow, linear-lanceolate, usually 10–14 cm long, 0.7–1.1 cm wide; base rounded to cuneate; apex attenuate; margins antrorsely scabrous; midrib proximally slightly prominent beneath, light green; pseudopetiole 1 mm long.

Origin

THAILAND, widely and frequently cultivated, is said not to be known in the wild. — MALAYSIA, cultivated. — SINGAPORE, cultivated. — INDONESIA (Java), cultivated. — LAOS, cultivated. — CHINA (South), cultivated. — Possibly also cultivated in MYANMAR, CAMBODIA, and VIETNAM.

Uses

Shoots for food; culms for construction, fencing, furniture, handicrafts, and potentially paper pulp; plants as garden ornamentals and for tall hedges.

Cultivation

Easy-growing, thrives well in heavy moist soil with good drainage, exposed to full sun, tolerates partial and light shade, tolerates flooding.

References

Bibliography of Bamboos of Thailand