Abstract

BackgroundBamboos, 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.ResultsThis 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.ConclusionsThe 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.

Highlights

  • Bamboos, widely distributed in temperate and tropical Asia, Africa and America, refer to a group of special plants in Poaceae, Bambusoideae

  • Wen is a small genus classified into Arundinarieae tribe (Poaceae, Bambusoideae) with about 16 described species (Bamboo Phylogeny Group 2012; IPNI 2021; Wen 1982; Zhang et al 2017)

  • Flowering material was dissected under a stereo microscope (Mshot-MZ101) and images were taken with the camera attachment (Mshot-MSX2)

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Summary

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

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