Bamboo, Tropical Forestry 10

Abstract

The morphological characteristics of different organs like clump habit and culm nature, branches, leaves and rhizomes including sheathing organs in various groups of bamboos are presented. The emergence of culms starts from spring and continues up to autumn, and there also exists natural mortality of emerging culms which vary with the nature of clump and culm wall thickness. The number of new culms that develop from a clump varies by species, soil and climatic conditions, harvesting method, age and size of clump, overhead cover, etc. In most of the species, both the height and diameter at breast height of full-grown culm produced during 5–7 years of clump age are maximum if not felled, and after that period, all the increments including clump girth are very little and remain more or less static. The clump girth in Melocanna baccifera shows continuous rapid expansion even after 10 years of age. Morphological characteristics such as the presence or absence of culm sheath, culm texture and colour, node nature, branching habits, etc., are found important to diagnose the age of a culm in the field. The growth form and development of branch, leaf and rhizome both in seedling and adult stages are discussed. All these knowledge of growth periodicity are important in scientific management of the bamboo clump