Ochlandra travancorica (Bedd.) Gamble

Beesa travancoria Bedd.
Common Name: Eeral (Tamil Nadu); Etta, Karretta (Kerala), Konda (Karnataka)

Habit
Culms : Tufted Height: 2-6m  Diameter:2.5-5cm  Culm Color: Grayish green
Internode Length: 45-60cm  Culm Sheath Colour: 15-20 cm long, thin,longitudinally wrinkled, striate,covered densely with appressed goldenor black bulbous-based hairs whenyoung, glabrous afterwards, truncatelyrounded above and with a fringe oferect stiff bristles, ciliate on themargins; imperfect blade narrow, subulate, 4-8 cm long; ligule narrow, entire.

Length of Leaf: 9- 30cm  Breadth of Leaf : 5 12cm  Leaf Shape: Oblong- lanceolate

Habitat: Evergreen and semi-evergreen forests  Altitude:   Soil: Sandy loam soils

Native to:
Introduced to: Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Asia tropical India

Description of Inflorescence and Flower: sub-verticillatespicate panicle with a few large fertile spikelets and a few much smaller sterile spikelets in the axils of ovate- lanceolate,smooth bracts which bear deciduous imperfect blades. Spikelets ovate or oblong-ovate, 3-4 x 0.8-1 cm, glabrous, striate,supported by 2-4 small sheathing bracts; empty glumes usually 3, concave, ovate, truncate at the top and tipped with subulate apex, many-veined and faintly transversely veined; flowering glume similar to the third empty glume; paleashorter and narrower, thinner, acute, faintly 2-keeled; lodicules 3, unequal, membranaceous, 1.6-2.2 cm long, 3-7nerved, one 2-cleft. Stamens up to 120, monadelphous, at first included and afterwards long exserted; filaments slender;anthers ca 2.5 cm long, narrow, long-hairy, apiculate. Ovary narrow, smooth, surmounted by tri- or quadrangularperigynium enclosing the style with 5-6 plumose stigmas, spirally twisted together.
Flowering Cycle: 7-12 years  Flowering Reported:Sholayar,Kodanad,Erumeli,Vallakkadav,Goodrical,Parithipally(1976),south western ghats (1988,1992,1993)

Propagation:Seeds, rhizome, culm cuttings

Uses: Basket, Handicrafts, pulp and paper, ply, Mat, Umbrella handles, Fishing rods, thatching, edible fruit

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