Bambusa vulgaris Schrad. ex J.C.Wendl.
-
Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
-
Family
Poaceae
-
Scientific Name
-
Description
Species Description - Perennial, giant herb; culms 10-20 m tall, 5-12 cm diam., erect but arching above, green, yellowish, or yellow with green stripes, glabrous, with lignified wall and hollow internodes. Culm leaves alternate, 30-45 cm long and about as wide, covered with patches of dense, blackish brown hairs, truncate at apex, bearing prominent, ciliate, falcate auricles; inner ligules short, the outer ligules absent; blades 6-13 cm long, triangular, erect, persistent. Foliage leaves in complements of 6-9; sheaths glabrous to brown hairy; inner ligules 0.5 mm long, membranous, the outer ligules 0.3-1 mm long, indurate; pseudopetioles 2-4(-6) mm long, glabrous; blades 12-30 x 1.5-4 cm, lanceolate, flat, glabrous, truncate to rounded at base with acuminate apex. Inflorescences loosely fasciculate, 2-3 cm long clusters borne on leafless branches, the branches usually >50 cm long. Pseudospikelets 14- 20 mm long, sessile, ovate to lanceolate, straw-colored, 5-7- flowered; upper floret sterile; fertile florets 8-12 mm long, ovate, the lemmas 10-15-nerved, the paleas narrowly elliptical, shorter than or as long as the lemmas, with pectinate-ciliate keels, the hairs 0.4-0.6 mm long, brown; anthers 2-5 mm long. Caryopsis not seen.
Distribution and Ecology - Uncommon, persistent after cultivation. Visually recorded at L'Esperance. Cultivated and commonly escaped in the New World tropics; a native of Southeast Asia.
-
Discussion
Common name: bamboo.