Melocanna  baccifera Bamboo Forests and Impact on Hill Ecosystem of the Indian Sub-Continent

Banik, Ratan Lal

doi:https://doi.org/10.54207/bsmps2000-2020-I67EZH

Abstract

Melocanna baccifera (Roxb.) Kurz is a versatile NTFP resource. It forms natural bamboo vegetation extended over about 35,86,410 ha of hilly forests distributed only in the geographical region of northeast India, Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) and Sylhet of Bangladesh, and Arakan hills of Myanmar. The major biological attributes of M.baccifera that strengthen the species capability in competing other bamboo and tree species in colonizing the hills of the above region are identified. These are underground extensive rhizome net-work with much elongated rhizome necks, the diffused nature of clump to provide room for more number of culms annually, rapid expansion rate of clump, tolerance to biotic interference including fire, huge production of fertile seeds with faster seedling growth, etc. The higher density of pagoda like erect solitary culms with radiating unequal numerous branches provide better mechanism in intercepting the rain water to the ground by throughfall and stemflow. The bamboo forest (BF) has profuse root growth and dense root distribution in the 0-66cm of soil depth and as a result ground is more porous in terms of non-capillary and total porosity of the soil mass. The large scale death of M.baccifera forests due to recent (2002-2010) flowering has mixed impact on the hill ecosystem, biodiversity and socio-economy of indigenous people.

Keywords

Clump architecture, Ecosystem, Flowering and biodiversity, Hydrology, Long necked-pachymorph rhizome, Melocanna baccifera forest, Muli bamboo, Soil erosion and land slide

Access Options

250/-

Buy Full Access in HTML Format

Instant access to the full article.

Get access to the full version of this article. Buy Full Access in HTML Format

Abstract Keywords References About this Article

Fig. 1

Melocanna baccifera :Map showing geographical distribution of natural forests of the species in the region

Fig. 2

M baccifera: A young, 1 to 2 years old clump is extremely dense with crowded emergence of shoots

Fig. 3

M baccifera: After 3-4 years of age, the clump gradually expands and spreads making gaps between the emerged culms

Fig. 4

M baccifera: A young clump excavated at 4-5 years age showing the underground rhizome system starts producing elongated rhizome necks and as a result emerged culms on the ground have been spaced-out, forms diffuse nature clump where emerged culms are solitary and erect. The rhizome necks are covered with tough sheaths fitted imbricately one above the other, and sharply tapering at the end, that pierce through the ground

Fig. 5

M baccifera: The excavated underground rhizome part of a mature well developed (estimated age, may be 20-25 years) clump from natural forest of Chittagong Hill Tracts. Individual standing culms are connected with each other at the base below the ground through long necked rhizome system resulting in loose, open and diffuse clump

Fig. 6

M. baccifera : Growth form of rhizome system a) The Long-necked-pachymorph rhizome type (McClure 1966); also called woody-pachymorph-diffuse type (Watanabe 1986)

Fig. 7

Bambusa vulgaris : Growth form of rhizome system b) a typical short-necked rhizome of B. vulgaris resulted in formation of clump; (c) a compact caespitose clump with pachymorph rhizome

Fig. 8

M baccifera: An newly emerging culm (1-2 weeks old), even at 30-40cm height, start producing rhizome necks below the ground from the mother rhizome

Fig. 9

M baccifera: Rhizome development in seedling at 5-6 months of age.: The rhizome has more elongated neck and carries a bud at the tip, covered with comparatively thick tough sheaths fitted imbricately one above the other; at the beginning the rhizome proper is strongly geotropic, then takes a horizontal course for a very short distance and finally moves with negative geotropism turning upward and producing a new culm on the ground

Fig. 10

Influence of age on the pattern of clump girth expansion in five different bamboo species. The clump expansion rate in M.baccifera is more or less similar to other bamboo species up to 2 years of age, then increase rapidly every year and continue thereafter even up to the 10th years of the study

Fig. 11

M baccifera: Clear felling and Jhum fire eradicate most of the plant communities, where as the underground culm buds present on rhizome and branch buds on stumps of Melocanna jungle rapidly activated and sprouted 0.5-1.3 m tall succulent to woody vigorously developed green twigs with big size leaves forming a compact green ground cover. Clumps were burnt, but the rhizomes remained unburnt and produced flowers and fruits above the ground, exhibiting the tolerance of species to fire

Fig. 12

Each fruit of M. baccifera :. Fruits “Bacciform caryopsis” are green, heavy (7-151g) and big (length 35-110 mm, and diameter 22-60 mm), obliquely ovoid, onion or pear-sized with smooth surface, thick and fleshy at stalk-end, apex terminating in a curved beak not covered with any glumes

Fig. 13

M. baccifera: Seeds germinated with normal plumule and radicle; 10 days old, more commonly secondary culms developed by tillering before the development of foliage leaves; each seedling is attached with a seed

Fig. 14

M.baccifera: The seedlings, unlike most of other bamboo species, make vigorous growth from the commencement; raised in polythene bags and placed in a nursery at Tripura

Fig. 15

Bambusa tulda: Rhizome system of a 6 months old seedling. The rhizome necks are very short and maximum of roots come out from the rhizome itself

Fig. 16

M baccifera: A 45 days old seedling with seed at the base, leaves produced directly on the node of unbranched stem; leaves are bigger, one and half times more in size than those of adult clumps. Leaves of adult plants are narrower and produced on the branch

Fig. 17

M.baccifera: A pure extended vegetation developed naturally
on the hills of Tamenglong, Manipur, showing no canopy gaps. Architecturally each standing culm exhibits an ellipsoidal pagoda crown, in which a large mass of leaves and branches is concentrated in the middle rather than in the uppermost and lowermost layers

Fig. 18

M.baccifera: A dense-cluster of thin, widely radiating, numerous (25-40) sub- equal branches arises from the bud at the culm nodes

Fig. 19

M. baccifera: A young newly elongated culm does not have leaves and branches, all of its nodes are covered with fairly large, 10-15 cm long, yellowish-green to straw coloured persistent culm sheaths provide strength to uprightness of culm during heavy rainfall and gusty wind; and also, protect the branch buds on each culm nodes

Fig. 20

M. baccifera: The narrow sheath blade on the culm nodes, usually 15-30 cm long, 2-3 cm broad, longer than sheath, flagellate in nature assists in drip tripping and stemflow the rain water to the ground

Fig. 21

M.baccifera : During flowering time a clump starts producing 12?60 cm long floral shoots always at the apex of thin leafy branches. The flower buds are borne at nodes along one side of the axis of a floral shoot and thus the pseudospikelets are produced on one side of the branches

Fig. 22

M. baccifera: Few clumps remain with green leaves without any flowers growing in small patches (such situation is locally known as Mau-Hak) inside a vast majority of gregariously flowering population extended over large tract of land covering many hills in Mizoram

Fig. 23

The bugs (Ochrophora montana) that increase during gregarious flowering of M.baccifera bamboo in different localities of Mizoram state. A population of a bug is locally known as ‘thangnang`. Huge number of bugs captured by the local people and dried on a tray after cleaning. These bugs are fried and used as food, also macerated in a wooden mortar into paste and boiled for extracting fat oil and consumed for several years as precious material

Fig. 24

M.baccifera seeds are collected and loaded in a truck at a local temporary market Chakmaghat, Tripura for sale. A local woman brought a gunny bag full of seeds for selling to the truck owner. These seeds are transported to other parts of Tripura and also outside of the state

References

1. Ahmadi, M.T., Attarod, P., Marvi Mohadjer, M.R., Rahmani, R. and Fathi, J., 2009. Partitioning rainfall into throughfall, stemflow, and interception loss in an oriental beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky) forest during the growing season. Turk J Agric For, 33, pp.557-568

Melocanna baccifera Bamboo Forests and Impact on Hill Ecosystem of the Indian Sub-Continent

Ratan Lal Banik

Journal of Non-Timber Forest Products | Volume: 27 | Issue: 1 | Page No. 1-21 | 2020 DOI: https://doi.org/10.54207/bsmps2000-2020-I67EZH | Cite this article