The Andhra Pradesh Forest Department believes it has found a new species of bamboo in the Maredumilli ranges of East Godavari district. The species is yet to be given a botanical name, while local tribes call it kampa veduru .
IFS officer P.V. Chalapathi Rao, who came across the species while studying the diversity and distribution patterns of different bamboos in the Eastern Ghats, said morphological studies and molecular characterisation (Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA analysis) confirmed it was a new species.
Five-year-old project
Research was undertaken into the nature of the bamboo, since no taxonomic account or description of the species was available.
The work on the bamboo has been going on for five years, since the time scientists from the Forest Research Institute (FRI), Dehradun, visited Maredumilli. Dr. H.C. Naithani, a bamboo specialist, felt it was a new species. To validate the findings, samples were sent to the Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI) for DNA barcoding, he said.
The genetics of the species was compared with that of other bamboo varieties.
The results suggest it is unique, he said, adding, “The barcode sequence of kampa veduru is quite interesting and the base pair does not match the existing Bambusa tulda and other Bambusa species.”
“Further studies on floral and fruiting characteristics have to be conducted to finalise the status of the species and assign it a botanical name. The flowering and fruiting of bamboos occurs once in 40 to 60 years. The specimens studied indicate its age to be about 30 to 40 years, which is close to flowering time,” said Mr. Chalapathi Rao.
Bamboos in the Eastern Ghats include Dendrocalamus strictus,Bambusa bambos (giant Indian bamboo, and Dendrocalamus hamiltonii.
Areas of study
The research studies were done in Palakonda range (Srikakulam forest division), Rampachodavaram (Kakinada), Lakkavaram (Chintur), Turimella (Giddaluru) and Chamala range (Tirupati).
