A New Bamboo Genus Endemic to Braian Mountain, Southern Vietnam
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Blumea 58, 2013: 28–32 www.ingentaconnect.com/content/nhn/blumea RESEARCH ARTICLE http://dx.doi.org/10.3767/000651913X669068 Cochinchinochloa (Gramineae: Bambusoideae-Bambusineae), a new bamboo genus endemic to Braian mountain, southern Vietnam H.N. Nguyen1*, V.T. Tran1*, T.T. Hoang1 Key words Abstract A clambering bamboo endemic to Braian mountain, southern Vietnam represents a new monotypic endemic genus, Cochinchinochloa H.N.Nguyen & V.T.Tran (Gramineae: Bambusoideae-Bambusinae), which is Bambusinae described and illustrated. Its culm nodes and the nodes of leafy branches exhibit a thick swollen patella, and in the Bambusoideae reproductive state this taxon bears pseudospikelets having two perfect florets, with an elongated rachilla internode Cochinchinochloa between the perfect florets, a rachilla extension bearing an imperfect floret at maturity, a narrowly 2-keeled palea C. braiana with a distinct abaxial groove, three lodicules, six stamens, free filaments, a glabrous ovary with a long style and new genus three stigmas, and an oblong caryopsis with a relatively thin pericarp. taxonomy Published on 7 June 2013 INTRODUCTION rachilla internodes, the absence of lodicules, and ovary shape, and it also lacks the basal branches and robust, thick-walled Asian clambering or scrambling genera in the tribe Bambu culms of Bambusa. In contrast, Temburongia is distinguished seae Kunth ex Nees, which are characterized by each node from Greslania Balansa by its split prophyll at the base of the giving rise to several branches, with one becoming longer and spikelet and the structure of each spikelet-bearing branch along dominant, and with a basic caryopsis have now been clearly the main inflorescence axis. Therefore, better morphological demarcated into groups. The first group is placed in the sub- studies of the flowers and fruits, plant architecture and habit of tribe Bambusinae J.Presl, which is characterized by iterauctant these aberrant taxa may assist in defining groups. inflorescences. This group contains four genera which are cur- During our investigation of the bamboos from Braian moun- rently recognized as distinct: a) Maclurochloa K.M.Wong and tain, Di Linh District, Lam Dong Province, southern Vietnam b) Soejatmia K.M.Wong from the Malay Peninsula (Wong 1993); in January 2011, the authors found several populations of c) Neololeba Widjaja from the Philippines, central and eastern bamboo widespread and abundant through degraded natural Indonesian island, New Guinea and Queensland (Widjaja forest in valleys and mountain gorges. Specimens of rhizomes, 1997); d) Mullerochloa K.M.Wong from north-east Australia branches, culm leaves, and flowering branches were collected. (Wong 2005). The second group is placed in the subtribe Hicke All collected specimens were dissected and studied. We con- linae Camus, which is characterized by having semelauctant firmed the presence of sympodial rhizomes in this bamboo with inflorescences. One genus is currently recognized in this group: clambering culms, and the branch complement at each node e) Temburongia S.Dransf. & K.M.Wong from Brunei (Drans field bearing several branches with the middle one dominant; the & Wong 1996). Investigating essentially these aspects for taxa pseudospikelets were clustered at distal nodes, each having (Maclurochloa, Soejatmia, Neololeba, Mullerochloa) previously two perfect florets and one imperfect floret, palea 2-keeled. The classified in Bambusa, Wong (1993, 2005) and Widjaja (1997) form and structure of rhizome, branches and inflorescences in found many additional characters distinguishing one or more of the collected specimens are basically similar to that of the first these genera from the type alliance of Bambusa s.s. (Table 1) four genera discussed above. Otherwise, the glabrous ovary Maclurochloa differs from Bambusa in having only one or two with the long style is typical for Mullerochloa and also found in perfect flowers in the spikelet, which also has 3–5 transitional the subtribe Melocanninae Trin. However, the pseudospikelet (empty) glumes, of which the upper ones are as large as the of Mullerochloa is characterized by having 4–9 flowers, the ra- lemma, and an ovary summit is not thickened; additionally, the chilla internodes are not truly elongate, and there are 4 stamens primary-branch bud prophyll has free margins in Maclurochloa, with fused filaments (Wong 2005). The branch complement of but in Bambusa has fused margins. Soejatmia has rudimentary the subtribe Melocanninae is typical a cluster of subequal-sized flowers below the perfect flowers and a distinctly bifid palea axes, and the palea is unkeeled. apex with hooked tips, along with other points of difference Furthermore, in our specimens the culm nodes develop a cir- from Bambusa s.s. Mullerochloa is distinguished from Bambusa cumaxial ridge or patella; the inflorescences are born terminally by its strongly flattened rachilla internodes, four stamens and on leafy branches; in mature pseudospikelets the elongated filaments fused into a tube. Neololeba can be distinguished from rachilla internode bears a fertile floret which easily disarticulates Bambusa by its simple branching system and a range of floral at maturity; a rachilla extension is present bearing an imperfect characteristics including pseudospikelet shape, the length of the floret elongate at maturity; and the caryopsis is oblong with a relatively thin pericarp and long, comparable to the inflores- 1 Forest Science Institute of Vietnam, Dong Ngac, Tu Liem, Hanoi, Vietnam; cence and spikelet structure of Temburongia. But Temburongia corresponding authors e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]. has semelauctant or determinate inflorescences and the © 2013 Naturalis Biodiversity Center You are free to share - to copy, distribute and transmit the work, under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non-commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No derivative works: You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work, which can be found at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/legalcode. Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder. Nothing in this license impairs or restricts the author’s moral rights. H.N. Nguyen et al.: Cochinchinochloa, a new bamboo genus 29 g f e 15 cm b i 0.4 0.4 m m m m 0.8 j c m c h 0.28 m m 0.8 mm m l d k 1.5 mm 1 mm 0.5 mm q o a p n Fig. 1 Cochinchinochloa braiana H.N.Nguyen & V.T.Tran. a. Culm leaf; b. dorsal view of culm leaf; c. ventral view of culm leaf with auricles; d. section of internode with thick swollen patella and bud; e. branchlets with leaves and flowering branch; f. section of internode of leafy branch with swollen patella; g. section of leafy branch; h, i. section of flowering branches; j. pseudospikelet; k. pseudospikelet with two florets; l. floret; m. 2-keeled, grooved palea; n. sta- men; o. stigmas; p. caryopsis; q. lodicules (drawn from holotype). 30 Blumea – Volume 58 / 1, 2013 b c a d e l g h i f j k m n s t o p q r u v Fig. 2 Cochinchinochloa braiana H.N.Nguyen & V.T.Tran. a. Habitat; b. rhizome with short necks; c. branches with middle one dominant; d. internode with thick swollen patella and bud; e. base of culm leaf; f. leafy flowering branch; g. section of leafy branch with under leaves surface; h. section of leafy branch with upper leaves surface; i. section of internode of leafy branch with thick swollen patella; j. stigmas; k. lodicules; l. ventral view of culm leaf with auricles; m. dorsal view of culm leaf; n. culm leaf; o, p. section of flowering branches; q, r. pseudospikelets with two florets; s. 2-keeled, grooved palea; t. lodicules and stamens; u. floret; v. caryopsis. — Photos by Tran Van Tien from the type locality. H.N. Nguyen et al.: Cochinchinochloa, a new bamboo genus 31 spikelets develop individually. Because this combination of inflorescence structure along with the other features described here is not found in any other described bamboo genus, we lemma propose to recognize this taxon as a new monotypic genus named Cochinchinochloa, with C. braiana as the type species. than glabrous ciliate apex longer rounded MATERIAL AND METHODS to mm 1 Living plants of this species were found in Braian mountain, Di elongated c. 4 fused into a tube 3 densely flexuous-hairy acute 2-keeled, distinctly 1 4–9 inconspicuous base patent-reflexed, not inflated at the not swollen swollen clambering-scrambling pseudospikelet Mullerochloa Linh District, Lam Dong Province, southern Vietnam in January 2011. Voucher specimens were deposited in VAFS (Herbarium of Vietnam Academy of Forestry Science – formerly Forest Sci- ence Institute of Vietnam). Fresh flowers were examined under short-hairy cylindric, an Olympus SX-41 light microscope and colour photographs were made using a Canon Power Shot SX10IS; line drawings apex long and descriptions were made from fresh material. Presumably mm related genera were used for critical comparison. lemma conspicuous 0.5–2 6 free 0 glabrous or sparsely short-hairy 0 3–12 pseudospikelet present erect, not inflated at the base not swollen not swollen erect to scrambling Neololeba RESULTS . Cochinchinochloa H.N.Nguyen & V.T.Tran, gen. nov. — Fig. 1 groove 2-keeled thin umbonate, lemma ≤ Type species. Cochinchinochloa braiana H.N.Nguyen & V.T.Tran. Mullerocloa , than narrow Etymology. The generic epithet refers to the Cochinchine area (southern a relatively Vietnam, which includes Braian mountain, Lamdong Province where the with longer with species is located), and -chloa: grass. long Neololeba , Densely tufted with rhizomes short-necked, pachymorph.