Clumping bamboo
Gigantochloa albociliata

Family: Poaceae

What it is like

Gigantochloa albociliata is an evergreen Bamboo growing to 12 m (39ft) by 4 m (13ft) at a fast rate. See above for USDA hardiness. It is hardy to UK zone 10. The flowers are pollinated by Wind. Suitable for: light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils, prefers well-drained soil and can grow in nutritionally poor soil. Suitable pH: mildly acid and neutral soils. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It prefers moist soil.

Height (m): 12

Where it is found

The plant is common in low elevation mixed forest, but does not enter savannahs.

E. Asia - Myanmar, Thailand.

Conservation Status: This taxon has not yet been assessed

Countries/locations it is found in

Asia, Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Hawaii, India, Indochina, Laos, Myanmar, Northeastern India, SE Asia, Thailand, USA, Vietnam

How it is used

Food

Rating: 3

Young shoots are eaten as a vegetable.

Medicine

Rating: 0

Other

Rating: 3

The woody culms are used in light construction (cottage walls, frames of thatched roofs), as trellises for climbing vegetables, for fence construction (typical in western part of central Thailand), tool handles (basal culm parts), furniture (with proper firing culms can be bent like rattan), woven wares and as raw material for paper and board.

Biomass: Provides a large quantity of plant material that can be converted into fuel etc.

Fencing: Plants that can be used for fencing.

Fodder: Food given to the animals (including plants cut and carried to them) rather than forage for themselves.

Furniture: A few miscellaneous uses that do not fit easily into other headings.

Paper: Related to the entry for Fibre, these plants have been specifically mentioned for paper making.

Plant support: Usually bamboos, used as canes in the garden for holding up plants.

Wood: A list of the trees and shrubs that are noted for having useful wood.

Fodder: Bank: Fodder banks are plantings of high-quality fodder species. Their goal is to maintain healthy productive animals. They can be utilized all year, but are designed to bridge the forage scarcity of annual dry seasons. Fodder bank plants are usually trees or shrubs, and often legumes. The relatively deep roots of these woody perennials allow them to reach soil nutrients and moisture not available to grasses and herbaceous plants.

Industrial Crop: Biomass: Three broad categories: bamboos, resprouting woody plants, and giant grasses. uses include: protein, materials (paper, building materials, fibers, biochar etc.), chemicals (biobased chemicals), energy - biofuels

Management: Managed Multistem: Regularly removing some multiple stems. A non-A non-destructive management systems maintaining the soil organic carbon.

Regional Crop: These crops have been domesticated and cultivated regionally but have not been adopted elsewhere and are typically not traded globally, Examples in this broad category include perennial cottons and many nuts and staple fruits.

Fodder: Bank: Fodder banks are plantings of high-quality fodder species. Their goal is to maintain healthy productive animals. They can be utilized all year, but are designed to bridge the forage scarcity of annual dry seasons. Fodder bank plants are usually trees or shrubs, and often legumes. The relatively deep roots of these woody perennials allow them to reach soil nutrients and moisture not available to grasses and herbaceous plants.

Industrial Crop: Biomass: Three broad categories: bamboos, resprouting woody plants, and giant grasses. uses include: protein, materials (paper, building materials, fibers, biochar etc.), chemicals (biobased chemicals), energy - biofuels

Management: Managed Multistem: Regularly removing some multiple stems. A non-A non-destructive management systems maintaining the soil organic carbon.

Regional Crop: These crops have been domesticated and cultivated regionally but have not been adopted elsewhere and are typically not traded globally, Examples in this broad category include perennial cottons and many nuts and staple fruits.

Carbon Farming: Plants that can be a critical part of the solution to climate problems. The Carbon Farming Solution - Eric Toensmeier.

Food Forest: Plants for Edible Forest Gardens and Food Forests.

How it is grown

Gigantochloa albociliata grows naturally in the dry tropical mixed forest at low to medium elevations. It is found in areas where the mean annual rainfall is in the range of 800 - 1,300mm, and the mean annual temperature is around 28°c.. Succeeds in well-drained soils of poor to medium fertility. Annual culm production in natural stands is 9 - 46 tonnes per hectare. A 6 year old clump raised from a rhizome cutting produced 27 culms with an average height of 10.5 metres (ranging from 5 - 16 metres), with an average diameter of 20mm (ranging from 10 - 30mm). A mature clump in a natural stand in Thailand can bear 50 - 60 culms. Bamboos have an interesting method of growth. Each plant produces a number of new stems annually - these stems grow to their maximum height in their first year of growth, subsequent growth in the stem being limited to the production of new side branches and leaves. In the case of some mature tropical species the new stem could be as much as 30 metres tall, with daily increases in height of 30cm or more during their peak growth time. This makes them some of the fastest-growing species in the world. Bamboos in general are usually monocarpic, living for many years before flowering, then flowering and seeding profusely for a period of 1 - 3 years before usually dying. This pattern can vary - sometimes flowering is sporadic, with plants flowering annually and not dying; at other times it is gregarious with all the plants in a specific species coming into flower at the same time. This species flowers both sporadically and gregariously. In Thailand, sporadic flowering is common whilst a flowering cycle of 30 years has been reported from Assam . Seeds from sporadic flowering are often not fertile. Normally, 3-year-old culms are harvested in a 3-year felling cycle, usually at the end of the dry season. Culms used for furniture need to be flexible and so are harvested when 2 years old, and cut close to the ground (the basal 1 - 2 metres is the most useful section because of the thicker wall), because 3-year-old culms are too stiff to bend and younger culms normally shrink during firing. Culms harvested at the end of the dry season are more resistant to borer attack. Young shoots for food are harvested in the rainy season. Traditional and chemical treatments are employed to preserve culms. Traditionally, culms are submerged in running water for 10 - 20 days. The culms are cleaned by rubbing with coconut husks or rice straw dipped in wet wood ash for a shiny surface, otherwise sandpaper is used. Chemical treatments include boiling the culms for 15 - 20 minutes at 95°c in a solution of 0.2% sodium carbonate or 0.1% calcium hydroxide, or at 80°c in a 0.3% copper sulphate solution. After the treatments, culms are washed with water, dried in the sun for 1 - 2 days, and stored in well ventilated rooms.

Propagating it: Seed - Rhizome cuttings are planted, using portions of the culm 30 - 50cm long. For small-scale planting seedlings are also collected from the forest.

Best place to grow:

Habit: Bamboo

Hardiness: 10-11

Growth: Fast

Soil: Light (sandy), medium, heavy (clay)

Shade: Semi-shade, no shade

Moisture: Moist

Things to keep in mind

Its other names

Local names

Bai mao ju zhu, Laix, Maihoushuan, Phai khai, Phai-rai, Phai-ruaklek, Russei khlei, Wa-hpyu-ka-le

Synonyms

Dendrocalamus albociliatus (Munro) J.L.Sun Oxytenanthera albociliata Munro Pseudotenanthera albociliata (Munro) R.B.Majumdar Pseudoxytenanthera albociliata (Munro) R.B.Majumdar Pseudoxytenanthera albociliata (Munro) T.Q.Nguyen