Bamboos of Sikkim (India) Bhutan and Nepal

Contents: Foreword/Chris Stapleton. Acknowledgements. Number of genera and species included in this book. Hierarchy of bamboo taxonomy. Large bamboos (Bamboo = Bans in Nepali): 1. Bambusa Shreber. 2. Key for the species of genus bambusa. 3. Bambusa balcooa roxburgh: dhanu bans. 4. Bambusa bambos willd.. Kanday Bans. 5. Bambusa lako: Timor black........... Small Bamboos (Nigalo in Nepali): 1. Ampelocalamus Chen, Wen and Sheng. 2. Arundinaria Michaux. 3. Bambusa alamii stapleton: murali nigalo, mugi bans. 4. Borinda Stapleton. 5. Cephalostachyum Munro........ Dwarf genera and species: 1. Pleioblastus fortunei: Dwarf Whitestripe. 2. Sasaella Makino. 3. Shibataea makino et Nakai. Annexures. Bibliography.

"Bamboo is one of the world's oldest, most essential and widely commercial crops, valued anywhere from $4.5 to $10 billion annually and it is used by a third of the world population in their daily lives. However, there are a very few books on bamboo written and published by the Nepalese authors.

New Hira Books Enterprises, Kirtipur, Kathmandu is pleased to announce that the foremost bamboo scientist of Nepal, Mr. Punya P. Poudyal, has added another book on this subject for the benefit of bamboo lovers, students, teachers, professionals, as well as researchers.

This book will be of equal interest to the readers of North America and Europe as much as it will be for the readers of Asia, Australia, or South America, who have a shared fascination and commitment to the study, promotion and use of bamboo globally.

This new book contains the description of 66 species of bamboos under 18 genera within Nepal (the home-country of the author), Bhutan, and the Indian state of Sikkim, which is tucked between the two. The author has taken great pain in compiling the synonyms, describing each genus and its distribution, and putting together an identification key for the species under each genus. This book is basically about the pant, as it is obvious from the painstakingly detailed description of each part of a species. All measurements are from the author's first hand observations in the field, unless they are quoted otherwise.

The book also includes a terminology, an index, a guideline for collecting herbarium specimens, a list of the genera, several other annexes, and a bibliography."