Schizostachyum grande Ridley
Journ. Straits Settlem. Roy. Asiat. Soc. 82: 204 (1920).
Gramineae
2n = unknown
Origin and geographic distribution
S. grande is a native bamboo of northern Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia and southern Thailand. For map click: Map436.TIF.
Uses
The culms of S. grande are used as frames, for plaiting dish covers and winnowing trays, and as containers to cook glutinous rice (lemang). The leaves are used as wrappers for a Chinese glutinous rice dumpling. Young shoots are used as a vegetable and also much liked by orang utans in Sumatra.
Production and international trade
The production and trade of products of S. grande are mainly local but no statistics are available.
Description
Open tufted, sympodial bamboo. Culm erect when young, later drooping to the ground or leaning on nearby vegetation, 3-11(-21) m long, 5-12 cm in diameter, wall 2-10 mm thick; internodes 50-70(-125) cm long, white hairy and white powdery when young, later glabrous and green to dull dark green with a white ring below the nodes; nodes with a purplish girdle at the junction with the culm sheaths. Branches arising from all nodes and all branches at one node more or less of equal length. Culm sheath more or less rigid, 20-35 cm long, 18-30 cm wide near the base, 4-12 cm at the apex, junction with blade horizontal, pale yellowish-green to pale green, pale pinkish tinged at the top, covered with white powder and white appressed hairs; blade narrowly to broadly triangular, 20-35 cm x 7-10 cm, erect, tapering to a long tip, early deciduous, reddish-brown to dark brown in young shoots, abaxial surface glabrous and smooth, adaxial surface densely covered with pale appressed hairs; ligule 4-10 mm long, irregularly toothed; auricles small, with bristles 5 mm long. Young shoots cylindrical and straight, whitish or whitish-green, with dark brown to blackish blades. Leaf blade (27-)50(-60) cm x (4-)7(-10) cm, usually glabrous, base somewhat asymmetrical, apex acuminate; sheath hairy to glabrescent, the top ascending above the attachment of the pseudopetiole on either side and joined across by the ligule; ligule 2-8 mm long, sometimes bearing some slender bristles; auricles small, without bristles. Inflorescence terminating a leafy or leafless branch, bearing dense groups of pseudospikelets at the nodes of its axis; spikelet 3-4 cm long, comprising 3 hermaphrodite florets and 1 rudimentary terminal floret, with long rachilla internodes. Caryopsis cylindrical, 8-12 mm long, abruptly narrowed into a stiff curved beak (remaining style), 13-15 mm long.
Growth and development
A mature clump of S. grande contains on average 10-25(-60) culms. Young shoots and inflorescences are produced all the year round.
Other botanical information
The composition of the pseudospikelets in S. grande with 3 perfect florets and long rachilla internodes is very different from the typical pseudospikelet structure in the genus Schizostachyum. In Peninsular Malaysia, S. grande is regarded as a weed in overlogged forest, where it occurs abundantly, together with Gigantochloa scortechinii Gamble and Dendrocalamus pendulus Ridley.
Ecology
S. grande is one of the commonest gregarious bamboos of open places in the foothills of the Main Range in Peninsular Malaysia above 400 m altitude (up to 1000 m). In Kelantan and Pahang (Peninsular Malaysia) and in southern Thailand it can be found at the edge of forests at about 50 m altitude.
Agronomy
Because of its behaviour as an aggressive weed in overlogged forest, S. grande is seldom cultivated. Its green culm weight averages 3.2 kg, branches and leaves 3.1 kg. Diseases and pests are not known.
Genetic resources and breeding
No germplasm collections or breeding programmes for S. grande are known to exist.
Prospects
In the past, in Peninsular Malaysia efforts were directed towards eradication of S. grande. At present, the exploitation of those weedy bamboos as material for local cottage industries is being promoted, more successfully for Gigantochloa scortechinii and Dendrocalamus pendulus than for S. grande. As a thin-walled bamboo, culms of S. grande could be used to make baskets and other handicrafts. More research is needed on how to reclaim land in certain areas occupied by S. grande.
S. Dransfield
For additional information about author(s) see Contributors or Editors.