Bamboo Taxonomy and Habitat

Abstract

Bamboos (subfamily Bambusoideae) comprise one of 12 subfamilies within the grass family (Poaceae) and represent the only major grass lineage to diversify in forests. Bamboos are distinguished by the presence of well-developed, asymmetrically strongly invaginated arm cells in the leaf mesophyll as seen in cross section and also generally exhibit relatively broad, pseudopetiolate leaf blades usually with fusoid cells flanking the vascular bundles. The nearly 1,500 described species of bamboos are classified into three tribes: Arundinarieae (temperate woody bamboos, 546 species), Bambuseae (tropical woody bamboos, 812 species), and Olyreae (herbaceous bamboos, 124 species). Relationships between the three tribes remain uncertain, but a much better understanding of evolutionary relationships within the tribes has been achieved based on analyses of DNA sequence data, which we summarize. We present synoptic descriptions for the three tribes and, for the Bambuseae and Olyreae, their currently accepted subtribes, as well as lists of included genera and comments. The history of bamboo classification goes back over 200 years; we provide an overview of the most important advances leading to the current phylogenetic classification of bamboos based on their inferred evolutionary relationships. Bamboos are native to all continents except Antarctica and Europe and have a latitudinal distribution from 47° S to 50° 30′ N and an altitudinal distribution from sea level to 4,300 m. Bamboos therefore grow in association with a wide variety of mostly mesic to wet forest types in both temperate and tropical regions, but some bamboos have adapted to more open grasslands or occur in more specialized habitats.