Authors:Mukta Chandra Das, Pator Singnar, Arun Jyoti Nath, Ashesh Kumar Das
Abstract:Bamboo dominates tropical evergreen and semi evergreen forests worldwide and it has attracted research interest for the unusual flowering phenomenon. Melocalamus compactiflorus, a tropical climbing bamboo flowered gregariously in the Cachar district of Assam in 2011. Little has been studied on the reproductive biology of species from North East India or elsewhere. Globally the species is distributed in Asia-temperate: China and Asia-tropical: India and Indo-China. Present study was carried out in Cachar district of Assam, North East India with an aim to explore the flowering pattern and seed production of the bamboo species. Cluster block design sampling methods were employed to study the flowering pattern and seed production. Flowering of M. compactiflorus did not occur simultaneously in all the sites and some of them did not flower (~15%). Average number of seeds per culm were 3295 (range: 2177-5416) with an average seed length 2.66 cm (range: 1.52-3.76 cm); seed diameter 2.23 cm (range: 1.80-2.79 cm) and seed weight 18.97 g (range: 3.27–32.22 g). The information on flowering pattern, clonal growth, and successful establishment of seedlings are important phenomena related to the dynamics and abundance of M. compactiflorus bamboo and in forest ecosystems.
Keywords:Bamboo flowering, Tropical climbing bamboo, Seed production, Melocalamus compactiflorus