Dinochloa andamanica

Synonym: Dinochloa tjankorreh var. andamanica (Kurz) Gamble, Ann. Roy. Bot. Gard. (Calcutta) 7, 1896: 112.

Thai name: no known records.

Burmese name: ဝါးနွယ် (wa-nwe).

Distribution: THAILAND (South): "found primarily on the west coast" (S. Dransfield, 1994: p. 2 [#1229]), climbing in scrub and evergreen forests at low altitudes. — INDIA: Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Culm size: Length 20–35 m, diameter 2.5 cm.

Descriptions:

(1) "Plants with long, green, glossy, creeping culms. Culms single, creeping along the ground, and rooting at the nodes or climbing over tall trees usually to a height of 35 m; branches geniculate, single, as long and stout as the culms; branchlets slender, numerous, in whorls, hanging with dense foliage; nodes swollen, marked by the base of fallen culm-sheath; internodes 23-46 cm long, 2.5 cm diameter, walls thin. Culm-sheaths green, less than one-fourth of the length of the internodes, with a fugacious white bloom; imperfect blade leafy, deciduous, nearly as broad as sheath. Leaves 23-30 cm long and 5-7.5 cm broad, ovate-lanceolate, attenuate at the base into a very short petiole, apex setaceous, smooth on both surfaces, scabrous on the edges, midrib prominent, secondary veins 7-9 pairs, transverse veinlets conspicuous owing to pellucid dots; leaf-sheaths appressed hairy when young, glabrous when old, ending in a callus and rounded mouth with white cilia; ligule broad, truncate, ciliate, fimbriate. …" — K. K. Seethalakshmi & al., Bamboos of India, 1998: p. 142 [#1062].

(2) "… Rhizomes short; pachymorph. Culms prostrate, or scandent; zigzag; 2000–3000 cm long; 25 mm diam.; woody; rooting from lower nodes. Culm-internodes terete; thin-walled; 23–46 cm long. Culm-nodes swollen. Lateral branches dendroid. Branch complement several; with 1 branch dominant; as thick as stem. Culm-sheaths deciduous; 0.25 length of internode. Culm-sheath blade triangular; as wide as sheath at base. Leaf-sheaths glabrous on surface, or pubescent. Leaf-sheath oral hairs ciliate. Leaf-sheath auricles falcate. Ligule a ciliolate membrane. Leaf-blade base with a brief petiole-like connection to sheath. Leaf-blades lanceolate; 23–30 cm long; 50–75 mm wide. Leaf-blade midrib conspicuous. Leaf-blade venation with 14–18 secondary veins; with distinct cross veins. Leaf-blade surface smooth. Leaf-blade margins scabrous. Leaf-blade apex attenuate; filiform. … [flowers and seeds described]." — Kew GrassBase [#1335].

Images: Line drawing, fig. 41, and photos (habit, culm) in K. K. Seethalakshmi & al., Bamboos of India, 1998: p. 142-143 [#1062]. Photo in A. J. C. Bose, Bamboos (brochure), IBG Howrah, Kolkata, 2013: p. 36, fig. (young plant) [#1260].

Uses: Culms are used as ropes by the aborigines of the Nicobar Islands.

Comments: A still unidentified species of Dinochloa in the vegetative state was collected on the coast of the Andaman Sea by ธ. ล. in 2010, which could be Dinochloa andamanica.