Kalpana Kalpana (Editor)

Yushania alpina

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Kingdom
  
Plantae

Family
  
Poaceae

Scientific name
  
Yushania alpina

Order
  
Poales

Genus
  
Yushania

Rank
  
Species

Yushania alpina httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Similar
  
Yushania, Oxytenanthera, Oxytenanthera abyssinica, Hagenia, Arundinaria

Yushania alpina or African alpine bamboo is a perennial bamboo of the family Poaceae and the genus Yushania It can be found growing in dense but not large stands on the mountains and volcanoes surrounding the East African Rift between the altitudes of 2,500 meters (8,200 feet) and 3,300 meters (11,000 feet).

Contents

Description

Stems and leaves
200 - 1,950 centimeters (6 – 64 feet) tall and 5 - 12.5 centimeters (2 - 5 inches) in diameter; these grass stems get used as fencing, plumbing and other building materials. Culm sheaths (tubular coverings) are hairless or with red bristles. Leaf sheath is covered with bristles. Leaf blades are "deciduous at the ligule"; blades 5 - 20 centimeters (2 - 8 inches) long.
Flowers
Branched cluster of flowers in solitary spikes, which can be dense or loose and are 5-15 centimeters (2-6 inches) long.
Roots
Short rhizomes described as pachymorph (a term which is recommended for describing rhizomes which are sympodial or superposed in such a way as to imitate a simple axis, but the word pachymorph would not be used for describing branches or in the case of bamboos, culms).

Distribution

  • Afrotropic ecozone:
  • Northeast Tropical Africa: Ethiopia, Sudan
  • East Tropical Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda
  • West-Central Tropical Africa: Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Rwanda, DR Congo
  • South Tropical Africa: Malawi, Zambia

    • References

    Yushania alpina Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA