Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 November 2021 | 13(13): 20136–20139
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893
(Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.6728.13.13.20136-20139
#6728 | Received 20 September 2020 | Final
received 14 November 2021 | Finally accepted 16 November 2021
New records of mass seeding Cephalostachyum
latifolium Munro (Poaceae) along the mid-elevation broadleaved
forest of Sarpang district, Bhutan
Jigme Tenzin 1,
Sangay Nidup 2 & Dago Dorji 3
1 Research and Information Unit,
Divisional Forest Office, Sarpang, Department of Forests and Park Services,
Ministry of Agriculture & Forests, 31002, Bhutan.
2,3 Gelephu Forest Range Office,
Divisional Forest Office, Sarpang, Department of Forests and Park Services,
Ministry of Agriculture &
Forests, 31101, Bhutan.
1 jigmetenzin16@gmail.com (corresponding
author), 2 sanzellsom@gmail.com, 3 ddorjee@moaf.gov.bt
Editor: K. Haridasan, Palakkad District,
Kerala, India. Date of publication: 26 November 2021
(online & print)
Citation: Tenzin, J., S. Nidup & D.
Dorji (2021). New records of mass seeding Cephalostachyum
latifolium Munro (Poaceae) along the mid-elevation broadleaved forest of
Sarpang district, Bhutan. Journal of
Threatened Taxa 13(13): 20136–20139. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.6728.13.13.20136-20139
Copyright: © Tenzin et al. 2021. Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International License. JoTT allows
unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium
by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: None.
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing
interests.
Acknowledgements: The authors would like to
acknowledge Mr. Phub Dhendup, chief forestry officer, Divisional Forest Office,
Sarpang under Department of Forests and Park Services (DoFPS), Ministry of
Agriculture & Forests (MoAF) for approving this field expedition (i.e.,
Tiger monitoring using camera traps in 2018). Meanwhile, Mr. Tshering Dorji,
forestry officer, Mr. Sangay Dorji, SFR-I, Mr. Kezang Dhendup, SFR-I and Mr.
Tandin Wangchuk, FR-II are also indebted for accompanying as a survey team.
Simultaneously, WWF Bhutan Office is also acknowledged for funding this camera
trap survey under Zero Poaching Project (2016–2018) and reviewers for
refinement of the paper.
Bamboo are plietesial plants
which can typically grow as even-aged cohort for some time and in their final
year of life, flower gregariously, set seed, and then die (Wright et al. 2014).
According to Vorontsova et al. (2016), there are over 1,642 species of
bamboo that belongs to about 88 genera of woody bamboos in the world. Out of
that, Bhutan has recorded 15 genera and 31 species of bamboo (Noltie 2000),
currently 32 species after the new record of Bambusa pallida by Dorjee
et al. (2020). Among them, 17 species belonging to nine genera are found within
the broadleaved forest of Sarpang district (Tenzin 2015). In fact, bamboo
species flower once in their life and die after mass seeding (Wright et al. 2014).
Flowering can be categorized into three major groups: annual, sporadic or
irregular and gregarious flowering (Brandis 1899). This event appears in a
cyclic pattern within the interval of 10 to 120 years (Ramanayake 2006) or 20
to 120 years (Thapliyal et al. 2015) depending on the species and genera.
According to Namgyel (2017),
first oral account of sub-tropical bamboo flowered in Bhutan was recorded
around 1963 in Kerabari, Woma & Sama villages in Kalikhola under Dagana
district by Mr. Chenkyab Dorji (Forest Ranger at that time), former Minister of
Planning Commission in Bhutan. Later, Samtse district has recorded mass seeding
of Dendrocalamus sikkimensis in 1985 to 1986 and Melocanna baccifera
in 2007 (Wright et al. 2014). While, temperate bamboo species such as Sinarundinaria
falcata, Thamnocalamus falconeri, and Thamnocalamus spathiflora
were also seeded around 2001 & 2002 and 2004 & 2005 in western part of
the Bhutan (Wright et al. 2014). In sub-alpine region, similar mass seeding has
been reported for Borinda grossa at Sakteng under Trashigang district in
2005; Thamnocalamus spathiflorus along Pelela-Yotongla passes in 2008
and Yushania microphylla at Lawala under Wangdue districts in 2011
(Wangda et al. 2011; Namgyel 2017). Likewise, mast seeding of Melecanna
beccifera were also been reported in the lowland forest of Bajali in
Indo-Burma hotspot region in 2008 (Sarma et al. 2010) and neighboring
northeastern India and Bangladesh in 2010 (Belmain et al. 2010; Wright et al.
2014). Till date, Melecanna bambusoides was the first bamboo species
been recorded to be flowered in Mizoram under North east state, India in 1815
(Thapliyal et al. 2015). Perhaps this could be the first starting milestone
ever tracked by the scientific literature till date within the range
countries. Meanwhile, recent record of
gregarious and mass seeding of Cephalostachyum latifolium bamboo species
from the mid-elevation broadleaved forest of Sarpang district in Bhutan has
added another new records to bamboo science in the February of 2017 (Image 1).
C. latifolium is locally known as ‘Jhi’
(Dzongkha), ‘Pishima’ (Kengkha), and ‘Ghopi bans’ (Nepali) that belongs to Cephalostachyum
genera (Image 1). Globally, it is distributed across Bangladesh, China, India,
Myanmar, and Nepal including Bhutan. However, Bhutan till date has recorded
only two Cephalostachyum species (C. latifolium & C.
capitatum) (Noltie 2000). C.
latifolium is distributed along Phuntsholing and Gelephu under Chukha and
Sarpang within the elevation range of 1,500 to 2,000 m (Noltie 2000).
Taxonomically, Noltie (2000) reported that it is a broadleaved bamboo, which
can grow up to 15 m height with the diameter of 5 cm. Culm sheaths has 50 cm
with ridges, edges membranous, and raised shoulders. While, leaf sheath shoulder
are raised, oral setae long, long ligules with glabrous and blade broad ranging
7 x 35 cm. Inflorescence are compounded with unilateral and becoming
sub-globular with orange cylindrical shape spikelet.
In Bhutan, gregarious flowering
of C. latifolium has been recorded from Dorokha in Samtse towards the
extreme west, Gedu regions in Chukha and Narphung in Samdrup Jongkhar district
including Sarpang (Sangay Dorjee, Samdrup Jongkhar Forest Division, DoFPS,
pers. comm.) within the mid-elevation of 1,500–2,000 m (Figure 1). While, in
case of Sarpang district, gregarious
flowering and seeding were recorded from the different areas under five
gewogs (sub-district administration): Darachu and Pathiwara in Gakidling; Dawnidhap
and ridges of Sherubling under Chudzom; Ranibagan top in Dekiling; Labarbotry
top in Sengye; and Ashiney, Samkhara top, Ghopidara and Lampokhari in
Jigmecholing gewog (Figure 1). Dorjee (2019) has also recorded gregarious and
mass seeding of same bamboo species in 2017 from undulated patches of
Lemtsorong and Shekpashing at 26.950°N & 91.546°E extending towards
26.952°N & 91.958°E in Narphung under Samdrup Jongkhar Forest Division
(eastern Bhutan). This suggested that the entire C. latifolium species
which were grown within these elevation ranges (1,500–2,000 m) might have
flowered and seeded across Bhutan. With this bamboo species, Bhutan has
recorded a total of eight bamboo species have flowered till date (until 2020),
while, 35 bamboo species have been reported to be flowered till 2015 in India
ever since the early 19th century (Thapliyal et al. 2015).
According to Wang et al. (2016),
gregarious and mast seeding explodes rodent population and induces food
scarcity. Exactly in these gregarious years, Bhutan Broadcasting Services (BBS)
and Kuensel both reported the ravages of maize by rodents in Largyab gewog in
Dagana & Patsaling in Tsirang district (16 October 2018 in BBS) and paddy
in Chudzom and Gongduegang in Jigmecholing gewog under Sarpang district in
Bhutan (10 November 2018 in Kuensel). Similar ecological havoc (famine and food
security issues) has been widely reported aftermath of gregarious flowering in
northeastern states of India in 1929 and 1959, particularly in Mizoram, India
(Goraya et al. 2003; Namgyel 2017). Nonetheless, gregarious and mass seeding of
bamboo plants means that local people lose their raw materials for building,
fencing, and other economic uses (Wangda et al. 2011). Further, studies also
report that mass seeding leads to the explosion of numerous bird species and
rodents in cases of India (Wright et el. 2014), while wild pigs, rats,
squirrel, and bears in case of Bhutan (Namgyel 2017) that induced famine and
human-wildlife interactions. Therefore, gregarious and mass seeding has immense
social, economic, and ecological implications to the communities. Thus,
research associated to ecology of gregarious flowered bamboo species, bamboo
phenology, and socio-economic implication of gregarious flowering of bamboo
species requires in-depth study in context to Bhutan by the research institute
(UWICER) under Department of Forests and Park Services (DoFPS) in collaboration
with Department of Agriculture (DoA) to manage and mitigate the future
ecological havoc related gregarious flowering in Bhutan.
For
figure & image - - click here
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