Dinochloa malayana
Dinochloa malayana S. Dransf., Kew Bull. 51 (1), 1996: 110-113, fig. 4.
Type: Perak, Peninsular Malaysia, 10 Dec. 1892, Ridley 3112 (K, holotype).
Misapplied name: Dinochloa scandens.
Thai names: ไผ่คลาน (phai khlan); ไผ่ดำเลื้อย (phai dam lueai); ไผ่เลื้อย (phai lueai); "dam" translated means black, dark; "lueai" translated means wiggle, ramble, crawl, slither, creep, wind; "khlan" translated means crawl, clamber. — T. Smitinand, 2001 [#1003]; BKF [#1368].
Distribution: THAILAND (South): from Chumphon Province to Narathiwat Province, in moist evergreen forest and secondary forest up to 1,400 m altitude, also in disturbed and secondary forest. — MALAYSIA (Peninsular), in lowland forest and forest margins, 10–500 m altitude. — INDONESIA: Sumatra: Riau Province: Karimun Anak Island (Little Karimun Island), in disturbed primary forest at 60–105 m altitude, and Batam Island, on the roadside (both islands nr. Singapore).
Culm size: Height up to 20 m and more, diameter 1–2.5 cm.
Dinochloa cf. malayana (BS-0183): Branches and foliage leaves
Descriptions:
(1) "Culms solid or with small lumen, 7 – 10 mm diam., internodes 10 – 20 cm long, very rough or coarse, covered with stiff pale hairs. Culm leaves with sheaths 7 – 9 cm long, about 2.5 cm near the base, 6 mm wide at the apex, purplish green, rough, covered with stiff pale hairs, base with scattered white hairs to glabrescent; auricles not present; ligule very short, entire; blades erect at first, then deflexed, 2 – 5 cm long, up to 5 mm wide near the base, with very long narrow tips, pubescent, especially near the base. Leaf-blades 6 – 20 cm long, 1.5 – 5 cm wide, base attenuate to rounded, with long acuminate tips, glabrous, smooth; sheaths glabrous; auricles very small, usually with long bristles; ligule very short. … [flowers described] … Fruits not seen." — S. Dransfield, Kew Bull. 51(1), 1996: 103-117 [#1382].
(2) "Sympodial bamboo, climbing or twining on other plants up to 6 m high. Shoots green with purple or maroon culm-sheath, covered with white hairs and white wax, rough but becoming smooth when mature. Culms zig-zag, green, diameter 1–2 cm, internode 10–15 cm long, solid or with a small lumen; nodes frequently producing roots when in contact with or near to the ground. Branch complement with one dominant branch surrounded by several smaller higher-order branches; dominant branch up to 3 m long or more. Culm-sheath 7.8–8.4 × 3–3.6 cm, caducous, purplish, auricles inconspicuous and glabrous; ligule entire, up to 1 mm high and glabrous; blades early caducous, purplish green, lanceolate, 5–6.5 × 0.5–1 cm, erect at first then deflexed. Leaves 15.1–25 × 2–4 cm, leaf-sheath auricles small, less than 1 mm high with bristles 0.5–0.7 mm long; ligule entire, less than 1 mm high and glabrous. Inflorescence not seen." — I. P. G. P. Damayanto, in Reinwardtia 17(1), 2018: p. 36 [#1273].
(3) "… Rhizomes short; pachymorph. Culms zigzag; 7–10 mm diam.; woody. Culm-internodes terete; thick-walled, or solid; 10–20 cm long; antrorsely scabrous; distally hispid. Lateral branches dendroid. Branch complement several; with 1 branch dominant; as thick as stem. Culm-sheaths 7–9 cm long; purple; antrorsely scabrous; hispid; without auricles. Culm-sheath ligule entire. Culm-sheath blade lanceolate; erect, or reflexed; 2–5 cm long; 5 mm wide; pubescent; attenuate. Leaf-sheaths glabrous on surface. Leaf-sheath oral hairs ciliate. Leaf-sheath auricles absent. Ligule an eciliate membrane. Leaf-blade base with a brief petiole-like connection to sheath. Leaf-blades lanceolate; 6–20 cm long; 15–50 mm wide. Leaf-blade surface smooth; glabrous. Leaf-blade apex acuminate. … [flowers and seeds described]." — Kew GrassBase [#1335].
Images: Photos in I. P. G. P. Damayanto, in Reinwardtia 17(1), 2018: p. 35-37, fig. 1 A-D (young shoot, young and old culm-leaves, leafy branches) [#1273].
Uses: Shoots edible.
Dinochloa cf. malayana S. Dranf.
Specimens: BS-0183 [S2] (living plants), Chiang Mai, Kham Thiang Market, cultivated, obtained 2004. BS-0183-1 [-] (living plants, all distributed) propagated from cuttings of BS-0183. BS-0066 [BBG] (living plants), Taiwan, from cultivated stock, received as "Schizostachyum diffusum", 22 Mar. 2012. BS-0304 [W4] (living plant), Rimba Ilmu Botanical Garden, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, cult. as "Dinochloa sp.", coll. by C. S., received Sep. 2009.
Characteristics (based on BS-0183): Habit of irregular shape, tight to loosely open clump. Rhizomes pachymorph. Culms usually erect below, not straight, often bending and zig-zag, not self-supporting, twining (both, clockwise and anti-clockwise), length over 15 m, may scramble over the ground if losing a supporting tree. Young shoots in varying tones of green, dark green, and purplish, sparsely covered with rough pale hairs; emerge in early July. Culm-internodes terete, purplish when young, dull dark green when mature, brownish green when old, scabrous (initially antrorsely scabrous), initially scattered with short pale hairs, (18) 21–28 (34) cm long, diameter to 2.0 cm at the basal part and 2.5 cm at 2 meters height, solid or nearly so on the basal culm, lacuna about half as wide as the internode diameter on the lower culm (lacuna 12 mm wide by an internode diameter of 2.3 cm at 1.3 m above the ground), with a small lacuna on the mid-culm (lacuna 1.0–1,5 mm wide by an internode diameter of 0.8–0.9 cm). Culm-nodes with a tall (1–2 cm) swelling dark brown corky girdle, scabrous, irregularly wrinkled, basally protruding; without thorns; without or with a few rudimentary aerial roots on lower culm-nodes; nodes of horizontally scrambling culms over the ground may root easily, develop rhizomes and new culm shoots. Branch buds solitary. Branches several or many, thin, 1–2 mm in diameter, rather short, not longer than 0.6 m, but one very thick branch may develop and continue twining as the main culm (mainly when the tip of the main culm is damaged, or when the main culm failed to get support or collapsed from a supporting tree, thus more or less growing diageotropically); branches on the lower part of the culms usually not present, buds remain dormant; branching intravaginal. Culm-leaves loosen from the sides, remain attached at the middle part of the sheath base, then drop. Culm-leaf sheaths about 6–7 cm wide at the base, 8–10 cm long, rigid, initially purplish to purplish green and scattered with stiff pale hairs, and occasionally with patches of white farina, soon the outer surface becomes dark brownish and glabrous when dry, or a few hairs that have changed to dark color may remain, particularly at the basal part of the sheath; margins smooth, ecilate; apex rounded, 1–1.3 cm wide. Culm-leaf auricles none, bristles none. Culm-leaf ligule inconspicuous, 0.5 mm high or shorter, entire, eciliate. Culm-leaf blade early caducous, papery, lanceolate, strongly reflexed, dark brownish when dry, about half as long as the sheath, 5–6 cm long, about 1 cm wide at the base, junction with the sheath about 3–4 mm wide; base rounded; apex long pointed; sheath of the lower part of the culm lacking blade (may be initially present and small, and fell off at a rather early stage). Foliage-leaves 6–10 per branchlet. Foliage-leaf sheaths green when young, straw-colored when dry, densely scattered with very short and slightly rough white hairs, and may become glabrous or nearly so with age. Foliage-leaf auricles none, bristles none. Foliage-leaf ligule very short, entire. Foliage-leaf blades dark green on both surfaces, glabrous and shiny on both surfaces, broad-lanceolate, usually (4) 6–12 (18) × (1.5) 2–3 (4) cm, considerably larger in young plants; base rounded to acute (not attenuate); apex acuminate; margins antrorsely scabrous; midrib slightly prominent beneath, no cross veins; pseudopetiole short, 1 mm. Flowers and seeds unknown.
Uses: The species may be suitable as a feature plant for wild tropical gardens twining on tall trees.
Local distribution: Plants were offered for sale at Kham Thiang Market for only a few weeks in 2004, thereafter, this species had never been found again to be offered. Several plants, undoubtedly of the same species, were found growing up pillars two or more storeys high of a house near the western moat of the old Chiang Mai city in the same year and thereafter. The plants were later removed, but as late as August 2009, a small remnant survived. It is not clear, where those plants from Chiang Mai came from; there is no evidence that they were originally collected from the wild somewhere in Chiang Mai Province.
Cultivation requirements: Culms may grow taller than 10 meters under favorable conditions. Plants thrive well in shade or deep shade; young foliage leaves might get burned if exposed to the sun. Heavy soils containing a lot of moisture are in demand.
Comments:
(1) No characteristics deviating from BS-0183 could be found in the living specimens BS-0066 from Taiwan and BS-0304 from Malaysia.
(2) The characteristics of BS-0183 and the other specimens cited herein match best with Dinochloa malayana S. Dranf., but there are several characteristics in plant size, culm-leaves, and foliage-leaves that make me doubt whether these fall within the variability of the species. These differences are described below (3–6).
(3) Plant size: It will hardly be possible to determine the height of a Dinochloa species in the field. Retrieving a single-cut adult culm out of a Dinochloa clump is impossible, and the application of the forester triangle method is not applicable in a thicket or steep terrain. The height information is therefore probably only based on an estimate. For Dinochloa malayana, a height of "up to 6 m" is given. In contrast, the culm length of BS-0183 was estimated at "over 15 m", i.e., more than twice that. Correspondingly, the culm diameter is thicker and the internodes are longer in BS-0183.
(4) The culm-leaf blades in Dinochloa malayana are described as "deflexed", but in BS-0183 they are strongly reflexed.
(5) In the descriptions of Dinochloa malayana is stated that the foliage-leaf sheaths have tiny auricles and short or long bristles. In BS-0183, however, I could not see the slightest rudiment of auricles and bristles in the foliage-leaf sheaths (or in the larger culm-leaf sheaths either), even under a magnifying glass.
(6) The sizes of the foliage-leaf blades, as well as the ratio of length to width of the foliage-leaf blades, are quite variable. However, the ratio of length to width seems to be generally somewhat different between the descriptions cited and BS-0183. The descriptions provide a ratio of blades 4 to 6 times as long as wide, whereas the ratio in BS-0183 is about 3 to 4 times as long as wide. The ratio appears to be even more distinct at 7.5 times as long as wide when based on the line drawing of foliage-leaf blades (fig. 4 on p. 111 in S. Dransfield, 1996 [#1382]). Such a shape of the blade shown in the line drawing, and with an attenuate blade base, I have never observed in any leaves of BS-0183 or the other specimens cited.
(7) Apart from the species' wild occurrence in southern Thailand, there is a reason for the assumption that plants of this species were introduced into Chiang Mai from Europe, where one species is kept in cultivation under the misapplied name Dinochloa scandens. During the 1980s or 1990s, this Dinochloa species was first introduced into Europe by Claude Rifat (1952–2002) under the name "Dinochloa scandens", said to have been collected by him on the island of Palawan, Philippines (if so, then from cultivated plants, because wild populations of Dinochloa malayana are not known from Palawan). Plants were propagated and cultivated indoors in Europe, and soon they were introduced from Europe into the USA. It was then published that Dinochloa malayana could be the correct name for this species grown in cultivation in Europe and the USA. Soon after Rifat's introduction of his Dinochloa plant to Europe, he introduced the same Dinochloa species to Chiang Mai during his visit to Thailand and said that he also introduced it to Taiwan and Japan.
(8) On 22 March 2012, I received two plants from Taiwan (BS-0066) under the misapplied name "Schizostachyum diffusum", which clearly showed not to be a Schizostachyum species but a Dinochloa species, and soon turned out to represent exactly the same species as BS-0183. This may be a plant propagated from C. Rifat's introduction of his "Dinochloa scandens" into Taiwan.
(9) The plant received from Malaysia (BS-0304) had grown large enough by 2017 to check and compare its characteristics. It turned out to be exactly the same species as BS-0183.
(10) It is apparently challenging to distinguish between Dinochloa malayana and Dinochloa scandens based on vegetative traits. Both species apparently have purplish young shoots, purplish young culm-leaf sheaths, and purplish young culms. The internodes, however, are described as "smooth or slightly rough, usually glabrous" (S. Dransfield, 1996: 104 [#1382]) and "slightly rough when young becoming glabrous" (I. P. G. P. Damayanto & al., 2021: 179 [#1379]) in Dinochloa scandens, whereas in Dinochloa malayana they are described as "very rough or coarse, covered with stiff pale hairs" (S. Dransfield, 1996: 110 [#1382]).
Dinochloa cf. malayana (BS-0183): The lower culm (center) remains unbranched