ALL INDIA COORDINATED PROJECT ON TAXONOMY (AICOPTAX) GRASSES & BAMBOOS PROJECT COMPLETION REPORT (April 2000- March 2011) BAMBOOS OF PENINSULAR INDIA Part-II M.S. MUKTESH KUMAR Forest Botany Department Forest Ecology & Biodiversity Conservation Division Collaborating Unit Kerala Forest Research Institute (An Institution of Kerala State Council for Science, Technology & Environment) Peechi-680 6753. Thrissur District, Kerala, INDIA Co-ordinator DR. V. J. NAIR Scientist Emeritus Botanical Survey of India, Southern Regional Centre, Lawly Road, TNAU Campus, Coimbatore, TAMIL NADU Sponsored by Ministry of Environment & Forests NEW DELHI KFRI Research Report No. 399 ISSN0970-8103 Taxonomy of Bamboos Bamboos of Peninsular India Final report of the Research Project No. KFRI 358/2000 Part -II M.S. Muktesh Kumar Forest Botany Department Forest Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation Division Kerala Forest Research Institute (An Institution of Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment) Peechi 680 653, Kerala June 2011 CONTENTS Project proposal……………………………………………………………..i Acknowledgements……………………………………………………........ii Abstract……………………………………………………………….…….iv Introduction………………………………………………………………...1 Materials and methods……………………………………………………..15 Results and discussion……………………………………………………..19 Systematic treatment…………………………………………………….... 22 References………………………………………………………………….133 Project Proposal Project Title : Taxonomy Capacity Building Project on Bamboos All India Co-ordinator : Dr. V.J. Nair Emeritus Scientist Botanical Survey of India (Southern Regional Centre,Coimbatore Collaborating Institute : Kerala Forest Research Institute Principal Investigator : Dr. M.S. Muktesh Kumar Forest Botany Department Forest Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation Division Objectives: • Survey, collection, identification and preservation • Maintain collection and taxonomic data bank • Develop identification manual • Train college teachers and students and local communities in para taxonomy Project Period : 2000-2011 Budget : 26.41 Lakhs Funding Agency : Ministry of Environment & Forests Govt. of India, New Delhi i Acknowledgements The author wishes to acknowledge Dr. J. K. Sharma, Dr. R. Ganaharan, former Directors and Dr. K.V. Sankaran, present Director, Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi and also Dr. K. Swarupanandan, Research Co-ordinator, for their keen interest, encouragement and facilities provided during the study. I wish to thank the Directors and Curators of different Indian herbaria, like, Central National Herbarium, Kolkata (CAL); Forest Research Institute Herbarium, Dehra Dun (DD); BSI Southern Circle Coimbatore (MH); BSI Western Circle Pune (BSI); Sikkim Himalayan Circle, Gangtok (BHC); Northern Circle, Dehra Dun (BSD); Calicut University (CALI) for permitting me to study and critically examine all the required herbarium specimens deposited in the respective herbaria. I express my sincere thanks and gratitude to The PCCFs of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu repectively, for all the help rendered and for the permission and organizing of our field trip during the study. Thanks are also due the Forest Department officials, who had taken lot of pains for accompanying during the field trips and for their help during the field work. I whole-heartedly thank Dr. M. Sanjappa, Director, BSI, Cenral National Herbarium, Kolkata; Dr. P. Daniel, Deputy Director, BSI Southern Circle, Coimbatore; Dr. Lakshmy Narasimham, Deputy Director, BSI Western Circle, Pune; Dr. V.P. Prasad, BSI Western Circle, Pune; Dr. S.M.R Almeidea, Blatter Herbarium, Bombay; Dr. Sas Biswas and S.S.Jain, Systematic Botany Division, F R I, Dehra Dun, for permitting me to visit the herbaria and library. My sincere gratitude goes to Mr. Babumani of Wildlife Institute, Dehra Dun, for the valuable help during my visit to FRI. Dr. T. Pullaiah, Professor and Head, Department of Botany, Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Anathapur; Dr. M. Janarthanam, Department of Botany, Goa University; Dr. Subharengaiah, Department of Botany, Andhra University spent their very valuable time to help me during the field visits. I express my profound sense of gratitude to Dr. K.M. Mattew, Rapinet Herbarium, St. Josephs College, Trichy for his expert opinions given to me during the study. The help rendered by the directors and curators of different International herbaria like Kew (K), Paris (P), Edinburgh (E) and Bogor (BO) for the Cibachrome sheets received from them is also gratefully acknowledged. Sincere thanks are due to Dr. J.F. Veldkamp,. National Herbarium, Universiteit Leiden, Nederland and Dr. Dan H. Nicoson, Smithsonian, Institution, Washington, USA, for providing their expert comments and clarification with regards to certain bamboo species during the study. I am thankful to the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, New Delhi, for ii the financial support to the study. Thanks are due to Dr. V. J. Nair, Co-ordinator of the AICOPTAX project on Grasses and Bamboos, for the encouragement given to me. The hard work done by Dr. M. Remesh, Mr. A. J. Robi, Mr. C. Sathish and Mr. R. R. Rakesh, Research Fellows, during the study is highly appreciated. The help rendered by Mr. Jay Jay Jacob, Technical Assistant, is gratefully acknowledged. The author also wishes to thank the members of the editorial committee for their critical and valuable comments for the improvement of the manuscript. iii ABSTRACT In Peninsular India, Bambusoideae is represented by 22 species and two varieties under seven genera. Ochlandra Thwaites is the dominant genus of South India comprising eleven species and one variety so far reported from South India and widely distributed. In the present report the species Ochlandra travancorica var. hirsuta Gamble, O. sivagiriana (Gamble) Camus and O. soderstromiana Muktesh & Stephen are synonymised under O. travancorica (Bedd.) Benth. The following species namely, Ochlandra beddomei, O. scriptoria, O. travancorica and O. wightii are typified. Critical and detailed study revealed that true monadelphous condition does not exist in the genus Ochlandra. Based on the affinities, the species under the genus Ochlandra are grouped as Travancorica group and Scriptoria group. A new combination under the genus Dendrocalamus is proposed. A species from the genus Oxytenanthera is transferred to the genus Dendrocalamus. The species Dendrocalamus strictus was typified. After a detailed study, the variety Bambusa bambos var. gigantea is treated as a synonym of Bambusa bambos. In the present study, the genus name Oxytenanthera is retained. The spelling in the specific epithet of O. bourdillonii and O. ritchiei are corrected and O. bourdillonii typified. The genus Arundinaria in South India previously treated under Sinarundinaria has been reverted to the genus Arundinaria and A. wightiana is typified. Teinostachyum wightii was previously treated under the genus Schizostachyum as S. beddomei. The basionym Teinostachyum wightii is accepted and typified in the present study. According to the present study, there are 22 native species of bamboos in South India. Out of the 22 species, 20 are distributed in Kerala, 6 in Karnataka, 5 in Tamil Nadu and 2 in Andhra Pradesh. Among these, 13 species are endemic to this phytogeographic region. In the Southern Western Ghats bamboos form a major component of the biodiversity. They show a high degree of endemism and most of the species have a restricted distribution. Recently, some of the so far known endemic species are found distributed in Sri Lanka. This gives an indication of the affinities of the Sri Lankan flora with the flora of South India. iv INTRODUCTION The importance of floristic studies and role of taxonomy in identification of a species hardly need any justification. For proper utilization of plant resources and their effective conservaton, it is always essential to have floristic inventories of all types of plants from different parts of the country. This becomes imperative particularly after the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD), which emphasizes to document a whole range of organismic diversity, to make all efforts to conserve these bioresources and monitor the efficacy of conservation measures adopted. CBD aims at conservation, sustainable use and fair and equitable benefits arising from utilization of the genetic resources of biodiversity. To achieve these objectives, there is an unequivocal need for taxonomic information. It has been found that there is an inadequacy of coverage of taxonomic groups. Comparison of distribution of expertise with that of collections and with the number of species in different types of fauna and flora shows that there are only a few taxonomists to adequately handle the less studied group of organisms and other specialised groups. Therefore, to bridge this gap, both in terms of our knowledge on the diversity and distribution of bamboos and grasses in the country and to develop capacity building in taxonomy of these groups where a few specialists alone are available an All India Coordinated Project on Taxonomy (AICOPTAX) was initiated under the aegis of Ministry of Environment and Forests, New Delhi (MoEF) in the year 2000. A coordinating unit at Botanical Survey of India (BSI), Southern Circle, Coimbatore, under the able leadership of Dr. V.J. Nair, Emeritus Scientist, BSI, to work on bamboos and grasses and two collaborating units, one at Botanical Survey of India, Kolkota under the leadership of Dr. Paramjit Singh to work on bamboos of North East India and another