Gigantochloa atter

(Hassk.) Kurz ex Munro

Sweet bamboo

Poaceae Edible: Shoots 13 iNaturalist observations

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iNaturalist· cc-by-nc

Summary

Gigantochloa atter, also known as black bamboo, sweet bamboo, or giant atter, is a bamboo species belonging to the genus Gigantochloa. It grows up to 20 meters tall. It is native to Island Southeast Asia, but has become naturalized all over South Asia.

Description

A tall bamboo. It grows 12-22 m high. It forms many tillers. It can be green or black. The stems are 5-10 cm across. The leaves are sword shaped and narrowed at the base. The side are unequal. They are 15-30 cm long by 2-6 cm wide. The flowering shoots have many branches. There are 5-15 spikelets in a group.

Edible Uses

The young shoots are eaten as a cooked vegetable and said to be as delicious as those of Dendrocalamus asper. The shoots are 5 - 10cm in diameter.

Traditional Uses

The young shoots are eaten as a vegetable.

This uses section is brief — help expand it

Distribution

A tropical plant. In Java it grows in the lowlands and up to about 1,400 m above sea level. It grows on alluvial, limestone and sandy soils.

Where It Grows

Asia, Australia, Indochina, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, SE Asia, Thailand,

Cultivation

Plants can be grown from sections of the rhizome or division of the clump.

Propagation

Seed - rarely available since the plant only flowers once in every 50 years or so. Rhizome or culm cuttings. In an experiment in Indonesia with 2-noded culm cuttings, survival rate was 60%. It is recommended to protect cuttings in the nursery from heavy rain and to transplant one-year-old plants when 75 cm tall. Planting is done preferably at the beginning of the rainy season.

Other Uses

The culm is much used for building material (framework, fences, walls). It is also used to make household utensils (e.g. furniture, beds, cooking utensils), meat skewers, chopsticks, toothpicks and handicrafts (e.g. basketry, lampshades). It is used as a substitute material for bamboo musical instruments when culms of Gigantochloa atroviolacea are not available. Culms are used to stake banana infructescences, although not as much as Bambusa sp. ('laak'). The culms are up to 25 metres tall, 5 - 10 cm in diameter at the base with a wall up to 8 mm thick and internodes 40 - 50 cm long