Indocalamus Nakai
Including Gelidocalamus Wen, Ferrocalamus Hsueh & Keng f.
Excluding Monocladus
Habit, vegetative morphology. Perennial (shrubs). The flowering culms leafy. Culms slender, 60–300 cm high; woody and persistent; branched above. Primary branches/mid-culm node 1 (but producing many branches later). Culm sheaths persistent. Rhizomes leptomorph. Plants unarmed. Leaves not basally aggregated; with auricular setae. Leaf blades broad, or narrow; 5–25 mm wide; cordate, or not cordate, not sagittate; pseudopetiolate; cross veined, or without cross venation; disarticulating from the sheaths; rolled in bud; ligule present; a fringed membrane; short. Contra-ligule present (in the species seen).
Reproductive organization. Plants bisexual, with bisexual spikelets; with hermaphrodite florets.
Inflorescence. Inflorescence paniculate; spatheate, or espatheate (the panicles spatheate or not, terminating leafy or leafless shoots); a complex of ‘partial inflorescences’ and intervening foliar organs, or not comprising ‘partial inflorescences’ and foliar organs. Spikelet-bearing axes paniculate; persistent. Spikelets not secund.
Female-fertile spikelets. Spikelets 8–18 mm long; with distinctly elongated rachilla internodes between the florets. Rachilla prolonged beyond the uppermost female-fertile floret; the rachilla extension with incomplete florets.
Glumes two; very unequal; shorter than the adjacent lemmas; awnless; similar (membranous). Lower glume 9 nerved (in material seen). Upper glume 9 nerved (in material seen). Spikelets with incomplete florets. The incomplete florets distal to the female-fertile florets. Spikelets without proximal incomplete florets.
Female-fertile florets 3–8. Lemmas sometimes tessellate; 7 nerved, or 9 nerved (in material seen). Palea present; relatively long; several nerved (3–5 nerved in material seen); 2-keeled. Stamens 3. Stigmas 2.
Fruit, embryo and seedling. Fruit longitudinally grooved, or not grooved. Pericarp fleshy (at least, in Ferrocalamus, Wen and He 1989), or thin (?); fused (Gelidocalamus and others), or free (Ferrocalamus). Seed endospermic (Gelidocalamus and others), or ‘non-endospermic’ (Ferrocalamus). Endosperm when present, containing compound starch grains.
Abaxial leaf blade epidermis. Costal/intercostal zonation conspicuous. Papillae present (large, thick-walled); costal and intercostal. Intercostal papillae over-arching the stomata; several per cell (one row per cell). Mid-intercostal long-cells rectangular; having markedly sinuous walls (these thin). Microhairs present; panicoid-type; 45–52.5 microns long (in I. debilis); 5.1–6 microns wide at the septum. Microhair total length/width at septum 7.5–10.2. Microhair apical cells 21–25.5 microns long. Microhair apical cell/total length ratio 0.47–0.5. Stomata common (alongside the veins); 24–28.5 microns long (in I. debilis). Subsidiaries parallel-sided and dome-shaped. Guard-cells overlapped by the interstomatals. Intercostal short-cells common; not paired; silicified. Costal short-cells neither distinctly grouped into long rows nor predominantly paired. Costal silica bodies ‘panicoid-type’.
Transverse section of leaf blade, physiology. C3; XyMS+. Mesophyll with non-radiate chlorenchyma; with adaxial palisade; with arm cells; with fusoids. The fusoids external to the PBS. Midrib conspicuous (larger bundle); with one bundle only. Bulliforms present in discrete, regular adaxial groups; in simple fans. All the vascular bundles accompanied by sclerenchyma. Combined sclerenchyma girders present; forming ‘figures’ (with most bundles). Sclerenchyma all associated with vascular bundles.
Cytology. Chromosome base number, x = 12. 2n = 48. 4 ploid.
Taxonomy. Bambusoideae; Bambusodae; Bambuseae.
Distribution, ecology, phytogeography. 6 species; tropical Asia. Woodland, and forming thickets in open country.
Paleotropical. Indomalesian. Indian and Indo-Chinese.
Economic importance. Leaves of I. longiauritus and I. sinicus used for wrapping Chinese tamales, for lining baskets, for roofing boats etc.
References, etc. Leaf anatomical: this project.
Special comments. Fruit data wanting.
Illustrations. • Abaxial epidermis of leaf blade. • Abaxial epidermis of leaf blade
Cite this publication as: Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M. J. (1992 onwards). ‘Grass Genera of the World: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval; including Synonyms, Morphology, Anatomy, Physiology, Phytochemistry, Cytology, Classification, Pathogens, World and Local Distribution, and References.’ http://biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/. Version: 18th August 1999. Dallwitz (1980), Dallwitz, Paine and Zurcher (1993 onwards, 1998), and Watson and Dallwitz (1994), and Watson, Dallwitz, and Johnston (1986) should also be cited (see References).
