Bambuseae
by W.R. Sykes
Evergreen grasses, usually with woody culms (bamboos), sometimes herbaceous (not in N.Z.), occasionally climbing. Growth either sympodial (determinate) with short and thick rhizomes (pachymorph) which form dense clumps or monopodial (indeterminate) with short to long ± slender rhizomes (leptomorph) which form ± diffuse thickets. Culm nodes marked by 1 or 2 prominent rings, the lower representing the scar from a modified sheathing leaf (culm-sheath), internodes usually hollow. Culm-sheath with sheath proper, membranous ligule and often auricles and associated oral bristles, and a short, thickened, sometimes caducous sheath-blade. Branches 1 to many, often only from middle and upper nodes (nodes often many-branched because of rebranching at base from the single bud). Leaf-sheath with ligules and often auricles and oral bristles. Leaf-blade petiolate, often tessellate (cross veins forming a lattice). Inflorescence of panicles, racemes, or spikes often subtended by a leaf-like spathe; sometimes a condensed fascicle with branches very contracted and small bracts subtending the spikelets. Spikelets all similar, 1-many-flowered. Glumes (0)-2-(4) (florets often Ø in countries of introduction). Palea exposed or ± enfolded by lemma. Lodicules usually 3. Stamens 3-6 (in N.Z.). Gynoecium: style 1; stigmas 1-3. Fruit usually a caryopsis; hilum linear.
Key
Since flowering is so irregular, bamboos are usually identified by vegetative features. As far as possible the generic descriptions below are comprehensive for species naturalised in N.Z. Other genera are in cultivation here; a few of these are mentioned because they have been sometimes confused with taxa treated as naturalised.
Flowering in bamboos is usually infrequent and irregular, often many years elapsing between flowering periods, although some species flower annually. Synchronous flowering is a feature of many species, following which all the plants may die or, as with most species in N.Z., parts of the clump die. Sometimes this happens for several years in succession. However some species have never flowered in this country since they were introduced, and some have probably never flowered anywhere in cultivation.
The treatment of Bambuseae here includes genera accepted by Stapleton, C. Bamboos of Nepal: an illustrated guide (1994), and by McClintock, D. in Walters, S. M. et al. (Eds) European Garden Flora Vol. II (1984).
