Gigantochloa ligulata

Thai names: ไผ่ด้ามพร้า (phai dam phra) (Trang); ไผ่เป้าลาย (phai pao lai) (Peninsular); ไผ่ลาย (phai lai) (Songkhla, Pattani); ไล่ (lai) (Pattani); ไผ่แนะ (phai nae) (Krabi, Surat Thani). — T. Smitinand, 2001 [#1003]; BKF [#1368].

Malay names: Buloh tikus; buloh bilalai.

Distribution: THAILAND (South): from Chumphon Province southward; in open evergreen forest, disturbed lowland forest, scrub, and wasteland, abundant in disturbed sites, at low elevations up to 600 (rarely 900) m, very common. — MALAYSIA (Peninsular): in the northern part, in low­lands, abundant especially in disturbed sites.

Descriptions:

(1) "Culms up to 10 m. by 6 cm. thick, young internodes with scattered stout dark hairs and a felt of short white hairs, dark green, sometimes streaked paler green; culm-sheaths up to 22 cm. long, thin, with sparse dark brown hairs when young, blade persistent; auricles low firm smooth 1 mm. high and up to 2.5 cm. in lateral extent; ligule 6 mm. tall in the middle up to 2 cm. at the ends, lacerate; leaf-blades on flowering stems up to 27 x 6 cm., very short-hairy to glabrous beneath; stalk about 3 mm.; callus below the attachment of the blade up to 1.6 cm. long; auricles little more than a raised line; ligule thin on the distal leaves, up to 3 cm. long, deeply bilobed; leaves on suckker shoots up to 10 cm. wide, callus 2 cm. long; ligule 4 cm. high. … A species with considerable variation in stature, the hairiness or otherwise of the leaves, the presence or absence of bristles on the auricles and in the development of the 'callus'." — H. B. Gilliland, Revised Flora of Malaya, vol. 3, 1971: p. 34 [#1039].

(2) "Culm sheaths pale green, densely covered with dark brown hairs; blade broadly lanceolate, erect; auricles low rims 1–2 mm high, glabrous; ligule with an entire 2–7 mm base bearing long bristle-like lacerations 3–18 mm long. Culms to 6–9 m tall, commonly 3–5.5 cm diameter, the smaller forms typically solid or with very small lumen; internodes 30–45 cm long, dark green, occasionally streaked with paler yellowish green at the basal part of the culm, without white wax or only very slightly waxy, young culms with scattered short appressed silvery hairs all over and falling away soon, with dark hairs near the top of the internode, and a narrow band of pale felty hairs above and below the node. Branch complement typically of 1 dominant main branch, very often with no further branches developed at its base, but occasionally with 1–2 subdominants at its base, these rebranching further. Leaf: blades 18–40 cm long, 4–7 cm wide, pale hairy below; stalk 3–5 mm long; auricles indistinct lines or ridges only 0.5 mm high, glabrous; ligule a deeply cleft or lacerate extension (6–8–)25–30 mm long; sheath developing a scale-like callus 1.5–12 mm long on the abaxial side near the top … [flowers described]." — K. M. Wong, Bamboos of Peninsular Malaysia, 1995: p. 131-133, fig. 70-73 [#1210].

(3) "Culms densely tufted, erect with pendulous tip, up to 12 m tall, 2—5 cm in diameter; internodes 25—45 cm long, plain green, scabrous, glaucous and scattered with appressed dark-brown hair when young; nodes not conspicuously swollen, marked by the crustaceous, persistent bases of the fallen sheaths, and narrow bands of white sericeus hair above and below the nodes; walls relatively thin, about 0.7—1 cm thick at mid-culm portion. Branches developing from upper nodes only as a single branch or several branches at each node, the primary one dominant, 1—2 subdominant branches from its base. Culm leaves persistent, crustaceous, yellow-green, 22—28 cm long by 14—24 cm wide, top convex, back covered with appressed golden-brown to dark-brown hairs; blades green, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, erect or spreading to reflexed, 12—26 cm long by 3.5—5 cm wide, margin pale ciliate only at the base; auricles dark green, continuing from base of the culm-leaf blade, rim-like, about 1—2 mm tall by 25 mm long, margins fringed with readily deciduous bristles on the upper half part near the blade base, 5—10 mm long, the lower half part of the auricle glabrous, shining; ligule papyraceous, long lacerate, up to 2.5 cm high. Leaves 9—13 per branchlet; blades 33—57.5 cm long by 4—10 cm wide, lower surface slightly scabrous, tessellate, bases acute to oblique-attenuate, pseudo-petiole 5—10 mm long; leaf sheaths 12—21 cm long, covered with appressed dark-brown hair then become glabrous; auricles inconspicuous; scale-like callus present, triangular, papyrareus, glabrous, 5—6 mm wide by 10—12 mm long, one side higher than another; ligule up to 4 cm high, glabrous, bifid in two long acuminate papyraceus lobes; secondary veins 12-16 pairs, intermediate veins 7—9. … [flowers described, seeds unknown]". — C. Rattamanee, Revis. Gigantochloa in Thailand, 2014: p. 90-96, fig. 29-32 [#1225].

(4) E. A. Widjaja, Revis. Malesian Gigantochloa, 1987: p. 361-365, fig. 30-31 [#1224].

(5) S. Dransfield in S. Dransfield & E. A. Widjaja (eds.), Plant Resources of South-East Asia No. 7, Bamboos, 1995: p. 111-113, fig. [#1226].

(6) Kew GrassBase [#1335].

(7) J. F. Veldkamp & al., Poaceae (Gramineae), in: Flora of Singapore, Vol. 7, 2019: p. 244 [#1283].

Images: Line drawing in J. S. Gamble, Bambuseae Brit. India, 1896: pl. 58 [#1230]. W. C. Lin, Bamboos of Thailand, 1968: fig. 26 [#1102]. J. F. Maxwell & al., 1987 [#1154]. Photos in AsianFlora [#1332]; photo of type specimen at Kew Herbarium (leaves, flowers) [#1333].

Uses: Shoots for food; culms for rural construction, and agri­cultural tools.

Comments: Can become a weed in crop plantations in southern Thailand [#1154].