Description
From Bamboos of Thailand, Native and Introduced Species (Poaceae: Bambusoideae) — An Annotated Compilation, by D. Ohrnberger (Khun Dieter – คุณดีเท่อร์)
Habit tight caespitose. Rhizome pachymorph, short. Culms erect, straight, up to 18 m tall by 5.5 cm in diameter, with no lower branching. Young shoots emerge from April to June. Culm-internodes 40–57 cm long, dark green, with several narrow light green to yellowish green stripes, not farinose, glabrous, smooth, but distally with loosely scattered short blackish hairs, denser below the nodes; diameter 4–5.5 cm; thick-walled (walls 1.1 cm thick, with a lacuna diameter of 3.0 cm, culm diameter of 5.2 cm on a culm at 0.5 m above the ground). Culm-nodes glabrous, smooth, flat; sheath scar marginally producing less than 1 mm; supranodal line obscure, without a ridge, 6–10 mm above the nodal line; with aerial roots on the basal nodes. Branch-buds solitary, small, 10–15 mm wide, 6–10 mm high, from the basal nodes up. Branches several, thin (diameter < 1 cm), the central one slightly dominant (diameter ca. 1 cm); branching from about the 14th node up; infravaginal; rebranching. Culm-leaves persistent on the lower (unbranched) nodes and decaying on the culm, late deciduous on the (unbranched) mid-culm, deciduous on the upper (branched) nodes. Culm-leaf sheath thickly papery, brittle, 20–23 cm long, about half the length of the internode, irregularly and densely covered with short appressed blackish hairs; margins short dark ciliate when young, the ciliae long-lasting when old; apex slightly convex to obtusely triangular-truncate. Culm-leaf auricles rim-like, each about 25 mm long, very low, increasing height to 2–3 mm towards the rounded ends, not reaching the sheath margins, but often with a small triangular extension as the edge of the sheath apex, glabrous, dark colored when young, brownish when old; without bristles. Culm-leaf ligule short, 1–3 (5) mm, dentate with a few early caducous short bristles, becoming subentire and brown with age. Culm-leaf blade thickly papery, erect or somewhat patent, becoming patent to reflexed when old, lanceolate on the mid-culm and upper culm, almost triangular on the lower culm, much smaller than the sheath (between 1/3 and 1/2 of the sheath length), caducous. Foliage-leaves 9–12 per branchlet. Foliage-leaf sheaths keeled, glabrous. Foliage-leaf auricles rounded, oral setae none. Foliage-leaf ligule short, 1 mm, denticulate, becoming subentire with age. Foliage-leaf blades glabrous on both surfaces, 18–28 × 2.8–4 cm; margins antrorsely scaberulous; base rounded to wedge-shaped; apex attenuate; midrib proximally prominent; pseudopetiole 2–4 mm long, glabrous. Flowers and seeds are unknown.
Origin
THAILAND: no known records. — MALAYSIA (Peninsular): northern part: Kedah: Langkawi Island.
Uses
Uses: not recorded; shoots are bitter and not recommended for food.
Cultivation
Easy-growing; in part shade to full sun, sandy loam to clay loam, normal moisture-retentive to moist with good drainage.
References
Common Names
- Isi-Ngisi (UK)
- Langkawi