小梨竹 Melocanna arundina

  • Scientific Name: Melocanna arundina C.E.Parkinson
  • Ref: Indian Forester 59:326. 1935
  • Synonym: Melocanna humilis Kurz
  • English Common Name: Burmese bamboo, Chittagong forest bamboo
  • Chinese Common Name: 小梨竹 xiǎo∙lízhú
  • Family: Poaceae
  • Genus: Melocanna
  • Distribution: Cultivated. Guangdong, Guangxi, Taiwan [native to Myanmar].
  • Photo: 06/21/2009, South China Botanical Garden, Guangdong
Rhizome terete, to 5 m long, ca. 2.5 cm in diam., solid. Culms upright, with nodding tip, 8–20 m, 3–7 cm in diam.; internodes green initially, straw-colored when old, terete, (12–) 20–50 cm, slightly white powdery and pubescent initially, glabrous when old; wall 5–7.5 mm thick; nodal ridge not prominent; sheath scar evident. Branches many at upper nodes. Culm sheaths initially yellow-green, 10–15 cm, apex broadly concave, rigid, leathery, with deciduous, appressed, stiff, short, white hairs; uppermost part inflated; auricles inconspicuous; oral setae well developed; ligule short, serrulate at margin; blade erect, linear-triangular, 10–30 cm, base ca. 2.5 cm wide. Leaf sheaths glabrous; auricles tiny, usually absent; oral setae 8–10 per side, deciduous, white, undulate or curved, 8–15 mm; blade lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 15–24(–35) × 2.5–3.5 cm. Pseudospikelets in clusters of 3 or 4 in axils of bracts, ca. 1.3 cm, glabrous; bracts 2–4, lanceolate. Lemma ovate-lanceolate; palea convolute, not keeled; lodicules 2. Ovary globose, glabrous; style slender; stigmas 2–4, outcurved. Fruit pear-shaped, large, 4.5–12.5 × 5–7 cm, fleshy, apex with a long, curved beak. (Flora of China)

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