Abstract

Background

Bamboos, widely distributed in temperate and tropical Asia, Africa and America, refer to a group of special plants in Poaceae, Bambusoideae. China is rich in bamboo species. However, due to a long flowering cycle, the flowering habit and the flowering structure of many bamboo species are still not well understood. Here, we report a new bamboo species from Guangdong, China and an analysis of its interesting branch development in relation to flowering.

Results

This species is similar to G. stellatus, the type species, but differs in the characteristics of its lemma and palea, mid-culm branch complement, and culm-sheath ligules. The initial branches at a culm node do not apically develop flowering structures during a flowering episode; instead, these form on what appears to be specialized flowering branches.

Conclusions

The results of morphological comparison support the recognition of Gelidocalamus fengkaiensis as a new species. And during a flowering episode, two branch types (‘foliage branch’ and ‘flowering branch’) can be distinguished in this species.

Details

Title
Gelidocalamus fengkaiensis (Poaceae: Bambusoideae), a new bamboo species from Guangdong, China, with an analysis of branch development in relation to flowering
Author
Zhuo-Yu, Cai 1 ; Xin-Xin, Zhou 2 ; Wong Khoon-Meng 3 ; Nian-He, Xia 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

1  Chinese Academy of Sciences, Key Laboratory of Plant Resources, Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Digital Botanical Garden, South China Botanical Garden, Guangzhou, China (GRID:grid.9227.e) (ISNI:0000000119573309); University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China (GRID:grid.410726.6) (ISNI:0000 0004 1797 8419) 
2  Chinese Academy of Sciences, Key Laboratory of Plant Resources, Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Digital Botanical Garden, South China Botanical Garden, Guangzhou, China (GRID:grid.9227.e) (ISNI:0000000119573309) 
3  Singapore Botanic Gardens, National Parks Board, Singapore, Singapore (GRID:grid.467827.8) (ISNI:0000 0004 0620 8814) 
Publication year
2021
Publication date
Dec 2021
Publisher
Springer Nature B.V.
e-ISSN
19993110
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s40529-021-00319-4
ProQuest document ID
2564701899
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2021. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.