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This well-illustrated book introduces the bamboos of Southeast Asia, a region well known for its incredible range of bamboo utilization and diversity. The author, a bamboo specialist in Malaysia, discusses the salient aspects of bamboo structure, biology and conservation and provides brief perspectives into the sometimes difficult tasks of bamboo classification and identification.
Bamboos are notoriously difficult for botanists to study because of the rarity of flowering material in many cases and the incomplete state of earlier reference collections on which many species names have been based. Field studies into their variation and of their basic biological attributes have also been scarce. Yet they hold immense fascination because they are such a useful group of plants that are linked to both traditional life and modern innovative use.
Ever wondered where to get a not-too-long, yet adequate introduction to what bamboos are? Bamboo: The Amazing Grass is a book that gives just that, plus an insider's perspective of the way bamboos are special in Southeast Asia.
Foreword viii
Preface ix
Bamboos and Us 1
How bamboos are classified 7
Cultivated or wild, common or rare 9
Common bamboos 10
Rare (and endangered) bamboos 13
The structure of the bamboo plant 21
The stem 21
The branch complement 24
Leaves and sheaths 27
Flowering branches 30
Flowers 32
Fruits 33
The flowering of bamboos 35
Identifying bamboos 39
Useful characters for identification 40
Southeast Asian bamboos 59
Identification key 59
Conserving bamboos 67
The useful or potentially useful species 67
Naturally rare or endangered species 70
Important collections of Southeast Asian bamboos 71
Collecting bamboo specimens 73
Acknowledgements 76
References 77
Appendix: Selected facilities with living collections of Southeast Asian bamboos 79
