Vishwanath Sharma, Mohd. Ibrahim, Ananya Dutta and Sandeep Yadav
Abstract
Northeast India is known as one of the most biodiverse regions in the world. In North-East India, bamboo holds an important place in the natural environment as well as in the socio-cultural and economic life of the people. Bamboo is a popular plant around the world with an unusual flowering cycle. Bamboo species exhibits sporadic or annually flowering behavior as well as gregarious flowering. With respect to flowering timing, it shows wide variation (1-120 years). Dendrocalamus longispathus (Kurz) Kurz is a very useful bamboo species naturally growing in the forests of north east India and neighboring countries. Due to high demand and unusual flowering cycle of this species, availability is decreased in the northeast India. Here, we collected information on bamboo flowering events of Dendrocalamus longispathus in North East India by investigating historical documents and field studies. This bamboo flowering data of Dendrocalamus longispathus will provide basis to conserve this species and valuable reference material for understanding bamboo flowering cycle.