Bamboos
Bamboos are often giant, long-lived, woody, evergreen grasses, members of the family Gramineae, tribe Bambuseae, mostly of the genera Arundianaria, Bambusa (Fig. 1), Chimonobambusa, Dendrocalamus, Phyllostachy, Pseudosasa, Sasa,Semiarundinaria, and Shibat
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1 Introduction 1.1 Importance ofthe Plants
Bamboos are often giant, long-lived, woody, evergreen grasses, members of the family Gramineae, tribe Bambuseae, mostly of the genera Arundianaria, Bambusa (Fig. 1), Chimonobambusa, Dendrocalamus, Phyllostachy, Pseudosasa, Sasa, Semiarundinaria, and Shibataea, known all over the world. These genera are native to every continent (except Europe and Antarctica), mainly Asian but some species of Arundinaria and Bambusa are native to the Western Hemisphere (Bailey 1976). Bamboos occur mostly in natural vegetation in tropical, subtropical, and temperate regions and are found in great abundance in tropical Asia. Their genera and species are distributed widely. At present, approximately 75 genera and 1250 species cover more than 14 million ha ofland (Sharma 1980). Many of them are indigenous to the monsoon areas of tropical Asia and have a limited distribution; many are found only in cultivation. The distribution of bamboos has been greatly modified by human intervention (Dransfield 1980). Bamboos are adapted mainly to the warmer parts ofthe world. The tropical and subtropical clump-forming bamboos, such as Bambusa and Dendrocalamus, are mostly very sensitive and are killed or severely injured by even a few degrees offrost, although some can endure temperatures down to 16°F without serious injury (Bailey 1976). Bamboos range from timber-producing species the size of trees (principally in the tropics, in such genera as Bambusa and Endrocalamus, and in extratropical Phyllostachys) to shrubs (Arundinaria, Bambusa, Chimonobambusa, Phyllostachys, Pseudosasa, Sasa, Semiarundinaria) or ground cover plants (Arundinaria, Phyllostachys, Sasa, Shibataea) (Bailey 1976). They are plants of enormous importance to the rural people in several regions of the world, but nowhere is their usefulness as great as in South and Southeast Asia, where bamboo is used for house construction, scaffolding, ladders, mats, baskets, fencing, containers, tool handles, pipes, toys, musical instruments, cooking pots, furniture, handicrafts, etc., and for several other articles of everyday use, including paper. It is also used for fuel, food, and feed (Lessard and Chouinard 1980). Apart from the many uses of the stems in the Orient and elsewhere, the bamboos have much to offer as ornamental specimens in the landscape, as groves established for ornament or erosion control, as hedges 1
Institute of Botany, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei, Taiwan 11529, Republic of China
Biotechnology in Agriculture and Forestry, Vol. 16 Trees III (ed. by Y.P.S. Bajaj) © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1991
222
Wei-Chin Chang
Fig. 1. An approximately IO-year-old forest of Bambusa oldhamii on . the campus of Academia Sinica, Taipei
and ground covers, and as tub orpot plants for patio or greenhouse. The strong stems of many species, particularly of the genus Phyllostachys, can be cut and cured when mature (3 years or older to yield excellent garden stakes, poles, or material for fencing). Species of Bambusa and especially Phyll
