Bambusa lako.
Family Poaceae.
From Indonesia, Timor Black bamboo is fairly common in Brisbane gardens.
A clumping woody bamboo with sympodial rhizomes and culms up to 0.5 m apart.
The culms are erect but may droop at the top.
Commonly around 10 to 15 m high they can grow to 20 m with a diameter of 4 to 10 cm.
The hollow internodes are 25 to 35 cm long.
The young culms are green with some becoming a darker green, brown or purplish
colour before maturing to a very glossy black.
Some internodes may have faint or dark thin green or yellow stripes.
When young they have scattered brown hairs.
At each node is a culm sheath with a curved upper edge.
The stiff brown hairs on the outer surface of young sheaths wear off.
The triangular blade has stiff, dark brown hairs on the inner surface.
The culm sheath has a ligule 2 to 3 mm high with a toothed margin.
The auricles, on either side of the ligule are around 6 mm high with bristles up to 1 cm long.
The basal 1 m of the culms have no side branches.
The higher nodes have 5 to 7 short branches per node.
The long pendulous lanceolate leaves have a short pseudopetiole.
The blades are up to 25 cm long and around 3 cm wide.
They have some hairs near the base on the lower surface.
The edge is rough.
The leaf sheath has a ligule around 2 mm high and 4 mm long.
The margin is flat or toothed and it has short hairs.
The small auricles have 4 mm long bristles.
There is an external ligule.
Flowers are not seen.
J.F.
