Dendrocalamus strictus (Roxb.) Nees

Bambusa stricta Roxb., Bambusa hexandra Roxburgh ex Munro , Bambusa pubescens Loddiges ex Loudon, Bambos stricta (Roxburgh)
Common Name: Male bamboo (English), Karali (Bengal); Lathi bans (Tripura); Salia (Orissa); Kalmungil (Tamil Nadu); Kallumula (Kerala)

Habit
Culms : Tufted Height: 8-16m  Diameter:2.5-8  Culm Color: Dull green or yellow
Internode Length: 30-45cm  Culm Sheath Colour: variable, lower ones shorter, 8-30cm long with golden brown stiff hairs on the back, sometimes glabrous in dry localities, striate, rounded at the top,margin hairy; ligule 2-3 mm high, toothed; auricles small, blade triangular, awl-shaped, hairy on both sides.

Length of Leaf: 25cm  Breadth of Leaf : 3cm  Leaf Shape: Linear- lanceolate

Habitat: Deciduous forests  Altitude: 1000 m  Soil: Grained and stony soils

Native to:
Introduced to: Uttar Pradesh, Madhya pradesh, Orissa, Assam, Manipur, Tripura, Meghalaya, Africa, Eastern and tropical Asia, India, China, Malesia

Description of Inflorescence and Flower: large panicle of large dense globular heads 4-5 cm a part; rachis rounded, smooth. Spikeletsspinescent, usually hairy, the fertile intermixed with many sterile smaller ones, 7.5-12 mm long and 2.5-5.0 mm broad,with 2 or 3 fertile flowers; empty glumes 2 or more, ovate spinescent, many-nerved; flowering glumes ovate, ending ina sharp spine surrounded by ciliate tufts of hair; palea ovate or obovate, emarginate, lower ones 2-keeled, ciliate on thekeels and 2-nerved between them, uppermost not keeled, often nearly glabrous, 6 to 8-nerved. Stamens long-exerted;turbinate, stalked, hairy above and surmounted by a long style ending in a purple feathery stigma.
Flowering Cycle: 45- 55 years  Flowering Reported:Uttar Pradesh (1950-1956), Orissa (1967), Madhya Pradesh (1961-1963), Maharashtra (1940-1942, 1948-1949,1957-1958, 1961-1962, 1978-1980

Propagation:Seeds, Rhizome, culm cuttings, tissue culture

Uses: , Musical Instruments, furniture, Agricultural implements, pulp and paper, madicine, food

References: Seethalakshmi K. K ,1998; Manual for establishment and management of bamboo plantations, march 2005