Bamboo a giant, fast-growing, wood like grass appears to be the most successful and diverse conspicuous group of plants belonging to the subfamily Bambusoideae of Poaceae. Bamboos have strong adaptability and are distributed widely in varied habitats. They are one of the earth’s oldest and most precious plant materials and have benefited human societies since time immemorial. They form an important group of plants that play a vital role in the economy and life of the people in many Asian, African and American countries. Bamboos play a key role in the rural economy of India. Due to the special physical characteristics attributed to bamboo, it has a glorious past and a promising future as part of the solution to 21st-century challenges. Globally, bamboo is being targeted for livelihood development and alleviation of both environmental and social problems in such a way that it can rightly be called the plant of the century. Taxonomically, bamboos are considered as one of the most difficult group of plants to identify. Despite immense resources, its importance and species-specific uses, the taxonomy of Indian Bamboos is still incomplete. Many of the Indian species lack full description and are either partially known or misidentified due to lack of subject expertise. Different workers treat species differently which has resulted in an ambiguous report of generic and infrageneric taxa. An updated account of the bamboos found or reported from India is presented here after an extensive taxonomic study of these valuable natural resources of our country.

Investigations on arbuscular mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) and dark septate endophytic (DSE) association in some of the dominant grasses from Melghat forest (phase I) of Satpura terrain India, was carried out to examine their existence and symbiotic relationships with the host plants. This forest area was not surveyed earlier by anybody to evaluate the AMF status diversity hence it was decided to survey the buffer and core area. Rhizosphere soil of each sampled grass was analyzed for the AM fungal structures in the roots to study percent root colonization by AMF and AMF spore density in rhizospheric soils of respective samples. The composite soil sample was prepared for each site and used for physicochemical analysis by standard methods. In the first phase of project, forty-eight dominant grass species from twenty-one different sites were collected along with roots and rhizospheric soil to find out AMF and DSE status of grasses. Both type of fungal associations was found in almost all the grass species collected during studies. All of them were found colonized by AMF hyphae along with moderate to poor development of mycorrhizal structures in roots. DSE colonization was also found in maximum forty-three grasses. Physicochemical characterization of all the soil samples were performed to find out its correlation with AM percent colonization and spore count. Mean AMF percent colonization were in between 1.33 to 52.85 and DSE in with 0.00 to 18.97. Viable AM spore count was in between 0 to 98 per 100g of soil. Altogether four AMF genera with its thirty-nine-different species were isolated and identified. A database of indigenous AM species richness for Melghat forest has been generated to plan and design the future management practices for grasses establishment and development, especially in burnt and overgrazed areas.

Gregarious flowering in bamboo species is a periodic event which affects the habitat’s ecology, since the whole population die within same time frame. The phenomenon sets effects on the social economy too as bamboo is one of the most important natural resources people depends on. In this paper gregarious flowering and mass seeding in Gigantochloa andamanica (Kurz) Kurz, an economically important bamboo species of Andaman Islands have been reported with effective conservation strategies to balance the population in natural habitat. This also includes the description, illustration, photo plates of the species for the easy identification, the ENM map based on the GPS data collected for the distribution area and data relevant to traditional and economic uses of the species. This study, more importantly, shows the application of ENM for the identification of suitable sites for field reintroduction of the seedlings in natural habitats aimed at their better growth and survival.