GREGARIOUS FLOWERING OF DENDROCALAMUS LONGISPATHUS IN TRIPURA

摘要

The Rupai bamboo Dendrocalamus longispathus. Kurz is distributed widely in Mizoram and Tripura. This species is generally found in the village area of Dhalbhum tract of Singhbum district of Bihar. Introduced into Orissa; into the western peninsula andcultivated at Calcutta, Malabar, etc. (Subramanian et al., 1998).Tripura is one of the major bamboo producing states in India. Endowed with rich and diverse resources of bamboo with traditional usage-Tripura is home to 19 species of bamboo out of 130 species available in India. Rupai is one of the nineteen species ofbamboo found in Tripura. The botanical name is Dendrocalamus longispathus. Kurz is one of the important indigenous bamboo species mainly used for house construction and roofing by the local people in nearby forest areas.The flowering nature of Rupai bamboo is often sporadic to rarely sporadic and the flowering cycle is 35-40 years. In past there are several reports of Rupai bamboo flowering in Chittagong hill tracks of Bangladesh by several authors. It has been reportedto have floweredin different years in Bangladesh and in Myanmar (Banik, 1986). Blatter (1931) points out that it comes underthe class irregularly flowering - gregariously and often sporadically. The flowering of Rupai bamboo occurred in Cox bazaar and Chittagong hills during the year 1928-30 (NMBA).