Bambusa tuldoides

• Botanical Name : Bambusa tuldoides Munro
• Synonyms : Bambusa ventricosa McClure
• Common Name : Buddha Bamboo, Buddha's-Belly Bamboo
• Common Name Details :

  It is given this name especially because of its remarkable swollen nodes.

• Plant Family : Poaceae (Gramineae)
• Plant Form : Grasses
• Occurrence (Sectors) : 28
• Occurrence (Special Areas) : Gujarat Forestry Research Foundation, Indroda Park

About Bambusa tuldoides Plant :

• Habit :
  • An evergreen, perennial bamboo with stems dark green or with yellow stripes and branched.
  • Culms basally flexuose, apically slightly drooping, internodes basally slightly swollen at the base, lower nodes with short aerial roots.
  • Culm sheaths decicuous.
• Leaves :
  • Simple, linear, found in groups, whorled.
  • Leaf sheath glabrous, ligule subtruncate, very short, auricles ovate falcate, blade linear-lanceolate.
• Inflorescence and Flowers :
  • Compressed spikelets, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, 2-keeled, apex obtuse, gemmiferous bracts 1 or 2, narrowly ovate, apex acute, florets 6-8, basal, 1 or 2 and apical 2 or 3 usually sterile, rachilla segments flat, apex inflated and copular.
  • Glumes absent or 1, ovate-elliptic, apex acute, lemma ovate-elliptic, glabrous, palea nearly as long as lemma, ciliolate near apex, 4-veined between and on either side of keels, apex acuminate with a cluster of white hairs, lodicules 3, margins long ciliate, anterior 2 slightly asymmetrical, posterior broadly elliptic.
  • Filaments slender, anthers yellow, apex obtuse.
  • Ovary broadly ovoid, stalked, apex thickened and hairy, style very short, hairy stigmas 3.
• Fruit : Not known.
• Flowering and Fruiting Time : October
• Significance :
  • The species is widely cultivated for the bulbous and ornamental culms.
  • It is also used in bonsai.