Dendrocalamus longispathus Kurz

Bambusa longispathus Kurz
Common Name: Rupai (Tripura), Khang (Bengali)

Habit
Culms : Tufted Height: 10-18m  Diameter:6-10cm  Culm Color: Grayish-green
Internode Length: 25-60cm  Culm Sheath Colour: :erect stiff bristles, ciliate on the

Length of Leaf: 10-30 cm  Breadth of Leaf : 2.5- 3.5 cm  Leaf Shape: linear-lanceolate

Habitat: Mixed forest, Evergreen forest, common near streams  Altitude:   Soil:

Native to: Asia-tropical: India and Indo-China
Introduced to: Mizoram, Tripura, Bihar, Bangladesh, Myanmar , West Bengal, Eastern India

Description of Inflorescence and Flower: largepanicle of interruptedly spicate clusters of spikelets, sometimes leafy rachis flexuose, flattened on alternate sides 1.3-3.8cm between clusters, glaucous-green, sometimes rough. Spikelets in heads, sometimes few-flowered blunt, nearly glabrous,5-7.5 mm long; empty glumes 2-3, obovate, blunt, with short rachillae between; flowers 2-3 fertile; flowering glumeblunt, obovate, cucullate, ciliate on the edges, many-nerved; palea oval, truncate, faintly keeled, 2-nerved between thekeels, faintly pubescent. Stamens short; anther yellow, short, ending in a black mucronate point; filaments short. Ovarybroadly ovoid, somewhat acute, hairy, ending in a rather short style and short purple stigma.
Flowering Cycle:   Flowering Reported:Bangladesh(1977-79), Myanmar(1912,1913),Kerala(1990)

Propagation:Seeds, rhizome planting, culm cutting

Uses: Construction, Pulp and paper, baskets, tooth picks, landscaping, edible shoot, sprints, containers

References: Seethalakshmi K. K ,1998, Ohrnberger D,1999, Rao A.N,1999