Woody bamboos
The woody bamboos are perennial, small to large, erect to scandent or climbing plants with well-developed woody rhizomes and culms. Rhizomes are sympodial or monopodial in appearance. The culms generally are lignified and greater than one metre, most of them exhibit two phases of culm growth. The first phase is represented by newly emerging shoots clothed by culm sheaths, in the second the shoots are devoid of culm sheaths and become lignified and have stronger culms.
The woody bamboos are widely distributed, both geographically and altitudinally and classified into three major groups such as paleotropical woody bamboos, neotropical woody bamboos, and north temperate woody bamboos.
The paleotropical bamboos are genera included in the subtribes Bambusinae, Hickelinae, Melocanninae, Racemobambosinae and other few unplaced genera). The paleotropical woody bamboos (native to the Western Hemisphere) is distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Madagascar, India, Sri Lanka, South-East Asia, southern China, southern Japan, and Oceania.
Distribution of paleotropical woody bamboos
(Maps redrawn by R Suganthasakthivel; courtesy: Elizabeth Vogel & Anna Gardner)
The genera representing subtribes Arthrostylidiinae, Chusqueinae, and Guaduinae are included in neotropical bamboos and distributed from northern Mexico and the West Indies to south-central Chile and Argentina and from sea level to over 4,000 m in elevation.
Distribution of neotropical bamboos
(Maps redrawn by R Suganthasakthivel; courtesy: Elizabeth Vogel & Anna Gardner)
The north temperate woody bamboos include the subtribes Arundinariinae and Shibataeinae and are widespread and diverse in the north temperate zone. Some members are also found at higher elevations in parts of Africa, Madagascar, southern India, Sri Lanka, and South-East Asia. A typical example is the genus Kuruna (formerly Arundinaria) found in Southern India and Sri Lanka.
Distribution of north temperate bamboos
(Maps redrawn by R Suganthasakthivel; courtesy: Elizabeth Vogel & Anna Gardner)
Herbaceous bamboos
Herbaceous bamboos are small less than one meter tall, non-lignified, clump-forming, stoloniferous, and poorly developed rhizomes. Roots are more prominent than rhizomes, represented by occasionally scandent plants with limited vegetative branching and unisexual spikelets.
Herbaceous bamboos are concentrated in the Neotropics distributed) from Mexico to northern Argentina, Paraguay and southern Brazil as well as in the West Indies. All herbaceous bamboo genera fall under the tribe Olyreae and the species like Olyra latifolia, Raddiella vanessiae are examples.
Distribution of herbaceous bamboos
(Maps redrawn by R Suganthasakthivel; courtesy: Anna Gardner)