Bio Diversity Park

Common Name : Himalayan Weeping Bamboo, Ringal (hill bamboo)

Hindi Name : साररू रिंगाल | Scientific Name : Drepanostachyum falcatum
Family : Poaceae
Uses : It is socio- economically and ecologically, an important member of hill bamboo, present in Uttarakhand Garhwal Himalayas (India). Young shoots is cooked as a vegetable. They are also fermented and preserved in Nepal to make a dish called tama. Tama is sour and has a very strong flavour; it is sometimes mixed in vegetable curries. The canes are used for making hats, baskets, rods etc. The culms are not very straight, and they have rather swollen nodes, which make them not very suitable as a weaving material. Nevertheless, they are still widely used for this purpose in the Himalayas. They are also used in construction and is used as a very effective soil stabilizer.
Native: W. & Central Himalaya to Indo-China
General Description:

It is a bamboo and grows primarily in the subtropical biome. Perennial; caespitose. It is a soft dandy drooped leaf bamboo. It has bushy, weeping branches, bright green stems, small, papery thin leaves. Leaf-blades are deciduous at the ligule; lanceshaped, 7.5-10 cm long; 5-8 mm wide. Leaf surface is rough above, hairless, or velvet-hairy below. Leaf- margins are rough. Leaf tip is narrowed, thread-like. It can be grown in sheltered, mostly shady spots. Inflorescence a panicle, or composed of racemes; terminal and axillary. Spikelets solitary. Fertile spikelets pedicelled. Spikelets comprising 1-2 fertile florets; with diminished florets at the apex. Glumes persistent; similar; shorter than spikelet; similar to fertile lemma in texture. Lodicules 3; ovate; membranous; ciliate. Anthers 3. Stigmas 2. Ovary glabrous.