Skip to main content

Giant bamboo (Dendrocalamus asper)

Petung or bamboo betung or dragon bamboo or giant bamboo (Dendrocalamus asper) is a species of plant in the Poaceae, large and strong stems, high adaptability, used as building material and structural wood for construction and cooked shoots for vegetables.

D. asper grows in clumps, the shoots are purplish black and covered by blackish brown velvet. 20 m high with curved ends, 40-50 cm long, 12-20 cm in diameter and 1-4 cm thick. Green or dark green or purplish green or whitish green or mottled white by lichen.

Dlium Giant bamboo (Dendrocalamus asper)


The margins of the internodes are surrounded by hanging roots, the reed midrib 50x25 cm, covered by blackish brown velvet, the ears are rounded and sometimes curled to the base of the reed midrib leaf, 7 mm high with jute hairs up to 5 mm. Ligula serrated irregularly, 7-10 mm high with short bristles up to 3 mm.

The leaves of the reed midrib are triangular with a narrowed base and bent back. Leaves on twigs with loose midrib or sparsely pale, without ears, ligular 2 mm, strands 15-45x1-8.5 cm, slightly hairy underside and short petioles.

Flowers in panicles on leafless twigs with clusters of spikelets on each internode. The spikelets are ellipsoidal, 6-9x4-5 mm, flattened to the sides, have 1-2 gluma and 4-5 florets.

Giant bamboo grows best at an altitude of 400-500 m, average rainfall 2,400 mm/year, temperature 25F, likes lots of sun and moist and fertile alluvial soil, but is also able to grow up to 1910 m elevation and places dry.









Petung grows by spreading roots and rhizomes underground. The speed of spreading is determined by the type of soil and the local climate. Rhizomes in the soil can be cut if desired and if separated from the main clump they will usually die.

Thick, strong and durable stem at 8% moisture content has a wood density of 0.7-0.8 g/cm3, at 15% moisture content it has a fracture strength of 103 N/mm2, the compressive strength parallel to the fiber direction is 31 N/mm2 and the tensile strength is 31 N/mm2. shear is 7.3 N/mm2.

Bamboo betung is used as a building material and structural wood for the construction of a wide variety of buildings including house posts, boats, tobacco shed frames, bridges, waterways, musical instruments, furniture, household and handicraft utensils, laminated boards, pulp, chopsticks, toothpicks and etc.

The large and sweet shoots are favored by people for pickling and various dishes. The quality of these shoots is considered the best compared to shoots of other bamboo species as food ingredients, including when canned.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Poales
Family: Poaceae
Subfamily: Bambusoideae
Tribe: Bambuseae
Subtribe: Bambusinae
Genus: Dendrocalamus
Species: Dendrocalamus asper

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Indian rosewood (Dalbergia latifolia)

Sonokeling or Java palisandre or Indian rosewood ( Dalbergia latifolia ) is a species of plant in the Fabaceae, a large tree producing hardwood, medium weight and high quality, rounded leaves, thin and broad pods, highly adaptive, grows in dry and rocky landscapes with lots of sunlight. D. latifolia has medium to large size, cylindrical stems, up to 40 m high with a ring of up to 2 m, the bark is brownish gray and slightly cracked longitudinally. The crown is dense, dome-shaped and sheds leaves. The leaves are compound and pinnate oddly with 5-7 strands that have different sizes and appear alternately on the shaft. The leaves are round or elongated in width or heart, the upper surface is green and the surface is pale green. The flowers are small, 0.5-1 cm long and clustered in panicles. The pods are green to brown when ripe and are elongated lanceolate, pointed at the base and tip. The pods have 1-4 seeds which are soft and brownish. Indian rosewood grows at elevations below 600 m,

Sengiran (Pittosporum moluccanum)

Sengiran ( Pittosporum moluccanum ) is a species of plant in the Pittosporaceae, small tree, up to 7 meters high, green leaves, elliptical to narrow elliptical, up to 17 cm long, up to 6 cm wide, sharp tip, narrow base and 1-1.5 cm long stalk. P. moluccanum has an inflorescence which is a collection of flowers. The fruit is red, capsule-shaped, elongated oval, sharp tip, 2 broken valves containing small and red seeds. This species grows in forests, plantations, roadsides, open or shaded areas. Kingdom: Plantae Phylum: Tracheophyta Subphylum: Angiospermae Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Apiales Family: Pittosporaceae Genus: Pittosporum Species: Pittosporum moluccanum

Evolution theory goes beyond

OPINION - As a Wallacean and Darwinian, I have always viewed life from the perspective of evolutionism. I see the world of plants and animals always using evolutionary theories. How a species develops functional organs, forms morphology, adapts to ecosystems and so on as a natural laws. This perspective ultimately forms my framework for thinking about various things, including the way I see myself, everyday problems and the way I think about big things such as economics, geopolitics, war and so on using an evolutionary perspective. Alfred Russel Wallace, Charles Darwin and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck are three great figures who really inspired me. They are well known as pioneers of evolutionary theories. They start from small things in the sub-subject of biology, although they also discuss geology and so on. Wallace focused on species adaptation and Darwin on sexual selection. Both developed evolutionary thinking using observational methods. Lamarck focused on structural morphology using l