Melocanna baccifera

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Melocanna baccifera
Systematics
Family : Sweet grasses (Poaceae)
Subfamily : Bamboo (Bambusoideae)
Tribe : Bambuseae
Sub tribus : Melocanninae
Genre : Melocanna
Type : Melocanna baccifera
Scientific name
Melocanna baccifera
( Roxb ) In short

Melocanna baccifera is an evergreen bamboo species with conspicuously large fruits. The species is native to India , Bangladesh and Myanmar ,andwas introducedto Taiwan . The bamboo species is particularly widespread in the Indian state of Mizoram , where it is called Muli. There it covers an area of ​​10,000 km², which corresponds to a biomass of 26 million tons with an annual increase of 5.8 million tons.

description

It is a clump-forming ( pachymorphic ) type of bamboo. The stalks reach heights of 10 to 20 m and have a diameter of 3 to 7 cm. They are green at the beginning and later turn straw-colored. The walls are thin, very thick in the lower part of the stalk. The internodes reach lengths of up to 25 cm (according to other information up to 60 cm). The nodes are protruding with many branches. The stalk sheaths are 10 to 15 cm long, initially yellowish green, later yellowish brown, and remain on the stalk. The leaves are 15 to 30 cm long and 2.5 to 5 cm wide and have thick leaf sheaths .

M. baccifera is a monocarpic plant that only flowers, produces fruits and then dies every 40 to 50 years. Almost all plants around the world bloom at the same time. The pear-shaped, fleshy fruits are 7.5 to 12.5 cm long and 5 to 7 cm in diameter. They are edible and contain 50 percent starch and 12 percent protein . Still hanging on the branches, they form rhizomes and culm tips ( viviparia ). The rapid growth of the young plants achieved in this way prevents exposure and erosion of the soil as long as the young plants are protected from being bitten by wild animals, for example by rats.

use

10% of the areas overgrown by M. baccifera in Mizoram can also be used economically. Since the tree population is sparse and also protected, the stalks replace the wood. They are used in house construction, as a base for pulp for making paper, for mats, household appliances and as an energy source for cooking and heating. The shoots are used as food, the bamboo also contains the coveted army of tabas .

Consequences of the flowering of Melocanna baccifera

The last flowering period in the Mizoram region took place in the years 1958 to 1960, previously around 1815, 1863 and 1911. Signs of further mass flowering are recognizable (as of 2005) by the increased occurrence of caterpillars, the lack of new shoots and isolated stalks that are already blooming.

The massive occurrence of rats was associated with earlier blooming periods, with severe ecological and economic consequences. The rats are usually already eating the fruits on the stalks, which multiply in large numbers due to the oversupply of food. A female rat can have up to 15,000 offspring annually if there is sufficient food. In the months of May to October the ripening bamboo fruits are eaten, in the following period the rodents eat the crops such as grain or potatoes and then they go to the villages. In previous blooming periods there was famine, diseases such as cholera, malaria and typhus and, as a result, political unrest. A local name for the bamboo is therefore also “mautak”, which means famine.

Programs are being agreed by both the Indian central government and the state government to prevent a disaster, including

  • Measures to harvest the usable stocks
  • Measures for long-term storage of the stalks while maintaining the quality of the material
  • Control measures against rats
  • Construction of canning factories for rat meat processing for export to interested countries (China)
  • Planting programs for the following 7 to 8 years

proof

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Flora of Taiwan

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