N E L U M B O Vol.52: 156. 2010

N E L U M B O    Vol.52: 156 .2010  

BOOK REVIEW

Bamboos at TBGRI by K.C. Koshy. Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute, Palode, Thiruvananthapuram-695562, Kerala, India. 2010. pp. 104. Paper back edition. ISBN: 978-81-920098-0-3, Price: 800, US $ 30.

       The monumental and comprehensive work of J.S.Gamble form the basesline for advancement of Bamboo studies in India. Even after the lapse of over a hundred years, this work is extensively used in India and South East Asia, not only by taxonomists and foresters but also by other specialists in morphology, biochemistry, molecular biology, anatomy and palynology. 

       The first post-independence exploratory work on bamboos in India was initiated at Forest Research Institute, Dehradun and Botanical Survey of India at Kolkata and Shillong. Subsequently, several reports, research papers, catalogues and detailed taxonomic accounts on the grasses and bamboos from various parts of India have been published. Most of these publications give purely technical descriptions used by well trained taxonomists and usually lack good illustrations and colour photographs to aid field identification. Therefore, these books could not attract the attention of the general public, nature lovers and nurserymen towards bamboos. More recently, illustrated books on bamboos have been published for India (by Seethalakshmi & Kumar, Tiwari) and Assam (by Baruah & Borthakur). It is pertinent to note that during the last 50 years, the nomenclature of Indian bamboos has undergone major changes due to revisionary works and monographic studies throughout the world particularly in China and Malesia. However, there is no general agreement about the generic concept and identity of several species complexes in India.Only study of live material can help in untangling so many identity problems that Indian bamboos face. Botanic Gardens and Bambusetums can contribute in significant way in our understanding of bamboos.

        The book under review- Bamboos at TBGRI by K.C. Koshy is a step in this direction and is very useful and informative book about the different species growing in the Bambusetum at TBGRI which are introduced from different regions of India and other countries, accounting for a large collection of live specimens of this unique group of plants.

The book containing 104 pages has been divided into three chapters. Chapter one deals with the establishment of the Bambusetum at TBGRI which explains the initiative taken by the author and the cooperation extended by different authorities & personalities for establishing the Bambusetum. Practical difficulties encountered in establishing this bambusetum and particularly excavation and transport of bulky rhizomes and propagules from Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh have been well presented by the author. In the second Chapter of the book, Bamboo resources at TBGRI are dealt under four categories – Live collections, Herbarium & Spirit collections, Museum specimens and Bamboo nursery. A detailed account of 68 species, 12 new hybrids and one variety under 15 genera is arranged alphabetically. It seems to be the largest collection of bamboos in any bambusetum in India. Each species is provided with correct name, synonyms, reference to major works, short description and distribution. The most important part of this chapter is information about the live accessions and different hereditary lines of each species raised and maintained in the Bambusetum and their exact location (which have been indicated on the Map) with planting date and province. This in addition is supplemented with the voucher number of dried specimens and spirit collections, thereby giving complete information about all the representing specimens of each species present at TBGRI.

        Chapter three deals with the prospects of the bamboo cultivation for sustainable utilization and hybrid production for quality improvement.

        The photographs provided for the species are excellent and helpful in identification of species but it would have been more useful if photographs of diagnostic characters and range of variation in different morphological parts were also given for their correct identification. Overall the author has presented the subject in a comprehensive way, though the book is lacking the identification key to the species, but author needs to be congratulated for developing one of the best bambusetums of modern times in this part of the world. It also clearly reflects how little we know about the bamboos and how difficult it is to identify this enigmatic group as there are 17 species in the book under Bambusa, Dendrocalamus and Ochlandra which are yet to be identified.

        The book has been aesthetically designed and well printed and is a must for all bamboo lovers, though the price appears to be on the higher side.

PARAMJIT SINGH

Botanical Survey of India

Kolkata

Gardens’ Bulletin Singapore 62 (2): 337–338. 2011

http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/1853519/1538570472/name/Review+of+BAMBOOS+OF+TBGRI+by+Wong+(2011).pdf 

Gardens’ Bulletin Singapore 62 (2): 337–338. 2011 337

BOOK REVIEW. Bamboos at TBGRI. K.C. Koshy. 2010.

Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India: Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute. 27.5 cm × 19.8 cm, card cover. 104 p. Price Rs. 800 / US$ 30.

       “All botanic gardens keep records of their living collections.” Thus declares the opening sentence in the preface to this book by Dr. K.C. Koshy, the founder of the Bambusetum at the Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (TBGRI) in Kerala, India. That exhortation does not detail how well those records should be kept, and Koshy proceeds to show how.

       This account was well-conceived, at a time when the TBGRI bamboo collection has just entered its third decade with nearly 70 species (currently recognised as 15 genera) and more than ten putative hybrids making up a whopping 933 accessions, a very good stage at which to declare coming of age. The opening chapter sets the foundation of the Bambusetum in the context of TBGRI’s history. Beginning with a mere 0.5 ha at inception, this Bambusetum has now grown to occupy nearly 6.6 ha (just more than 16 acres) in the sprawling green 121-ha campus of the TBGRI. Koshy gives a quick overview of Asian and Indian bambuseta, drawing attention to the humble beginnings of those collections that today continue to support scientific studies, such as at the East India Company (later Indian) Botanic Garden at Howrah, Calcutta from the time of Roxburgh in the early 19th century, as well as a good number of newer collections established around the 1980s. Notes are provided on the propagation methods used at TBGRI, the stage-by-stage development, and the geographical provenances covered that emphasised the Western Ghats region and North Western and North Eastern India. Koshy also documents how thirteen taxa were duplicated from the bambusetum of the Forest Research Institute at Dehra Dun, where specialist attention for bamboo taxonomy and genetics, biology and utilisation, have been and continue to be emphasised. This kind of duplication represents some insurance against loss at one location and also allows comparative studies in different environments. One or two anecdotes, such as the difficulties of transporting bulky plant offsets by passenger train, the Manipur collecting expedition through insurgency areas, or the monsoonal damage to Bambusetum plants in June 2003 that had to be dealt with, make the account come alive. Building a bambusetum is not just planting bamboo, it brings us into contact with much else, and often in ‘heavyweight’ fashion.

       The main records are compiled as Chapter 2. Herbarium and spirit-preserved material help document the living accessions. The entries are organised by genus and species in alphabetical order. Each taxon entry provides the scientific name, relevant taxonomic references, a brief description of the species, a literature-based distribution statement, and a note on the number of hereditary lines represented by the TBGRI material. The accession numbers of the taxon are given with location statement and (presumably GPS) coordinates in the TBGRI Bambusetum; planting date; propagule type used; details of origin (typically state, district and precise location), collection date, and collector and collection number. Herbarium and spirit collections associated with the material (either collected from outside the Bambusetum, or within: this is carefully distinguished) are also given when available. But not only are there planted bamboo accessions in the Bambusetum, as two natural populations, Bambusa bambos and Ochlandra travancorica, have been carefully conserved on site.

       This book is very nicely produced, replete with end-paper photographic spreads of Pseudoxytenanthera bourdillonii (Gamble) H.B.Naithani and a frontispiece with an alluring teaser in the form of an unidentified gigantic Dendrocalamus sp. Nearly every page has full-colour photographs, and there are a good number of full-page photographic reproductions (a Roxburgh painting of Melocanna baccifera faces the Preface), including many of the Bambusetum accessions. A contour map of the TBGRI Bambusetum showing the locations of all accessions spans nearly two pages, which means a serious fold is found right across it, and the fine print used for accession numbers on this map can be a challenge to the reader. Apart from this, the book is a highly unusual, but extremely welcome, detailed (and pleasant-to-consult) record of a scientific collection of living bamboos. It is unprecedented.

       The TBGRI is a young institution, set up in 1979, and its Bambusetum was established in 1987, so it could be surprising that, in effect, this book unveils to the modern world one of the finest, if not the best, scientific living collections of bamboo in all of India and the tropics. And K.C. Koshy, certainly, has set the standard for not only TBGRI, which looks towards an ever-increasing role in tropical plant research,but any institute that seriously wishes to build a scientific collection of bamboos. TBGRI has had the ‘right recipe’: forefathers with good breadth of vision, passionate researchers who are well-qualified and dedicated to the task, good networking, and the great Kerala setting for tropical plants. It had worked before in the tropics and works again.

K.M. Wong

Singapore Botanic Gardens