Bamboos at TBGRI
Maarten J. M. Christenhusz · Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society · 2011
Bamboos are among the most rapidly growing plants on earth and they are an important renewable resource, because their stems are tough but flexible and are used widely for construction and paper production. A collection of bamboos, a bambusetum, can function as a source for dissemination of this renewable resource and the one at the Tropical Botanic Garden (TBGRI) in Kerala, India, has fulfilled this purpose very well. Dr. Koshy has studied bamboos at TBGRI in Palode since 1987, resulting in the establishment of a fine collection of bamboos, many of which were collected from the wild. This well-illustrated book summarizes his work and describes the establishment and history of the bambusetum. Apart from the living collections of bamboos (spread over 6.59 hectares, containing 933 accessions belonging to 68 species), there is also a small herbarium and spirit collection. All accessions (live collections, dried specimens and spirit collections) are mentioned after a detailed description and distribution of each species. All species described are accompanied by a habit picture and sometimes by additional pictures showing the flowers, seeds or stem details.