PlantaeDB Logo
Login Sign-up

Genus Dinochloa in Family Poaceae

In botanical taxonomy, a genus (plural genera) is a rank used to group closely related species within a family. In the hierarchy, genus sits below family and above species.

Genera are defined by shared morphological, anatomical, and genetic characteristics (for example, features of flowers, fruits, seeds, or leaves) that indicate a close evolutionary relationship among the species they contain.

Each genus can include one or more species. Examples include Rosa (roses) and Solanum (nightshades, including tomato and eggplant).

Do you wish to read more about plant taxonomy? Click here!

Genus Description

Suggest a correction!

Dinochloa Buse is a small tropical bamboo genus belonging to the family Poaceae (subfamily Bambusoideae) that comprises roughly 30 species (POWO, 2024; WFO, 2024). Its range is centred on the Malesian archipelago—Borneo, Sumatra, the Philippines, the Moluccas and the Malay Peninsula—where it occupies lowland to lower montane rainforest, peat‑swamp and riverine habitats from sea level to about 1200 m (Holttum, 1956). The type species, D. scandens (Blume) Buse, was designated by Buse and remains the nomenclatural anchor for the genus (Holttum, 1956).

Plants of Dinochloa are climbing or scrambling bamboos with weak, slender culms that often lean on surrounding vegetation; the culms arise from leptomorph (running) rhizomes and bear conspicuous nodes. Leaf sheaths are persistent, bearing a short, truncate ligule and usually a pair of reduced membranous stipules. Leaf blades are lanceolate, papery, glabrous to sparsely ciliate, with a distinct midrib and parallel venation. The inflorescence is a terminal panicle of sessile spikelets; each spikelet carries two to five florets with membranous glumes, a short aristate lemma and a palea. The ovary is superior, unilocular, with three feathery stigmas, and the fruit is a small, hard caryopsis typical of grasses.

Diversity is highest in Borneo and the Philippines, where numerous narrow endemics occur, often restricted to single islands or mountain ranges (Holttum, 1956). Species typically inhabit primary or secondary forest, peat‑swamp, or disturbed sites, with an elevational limit rarely exceeding 1300 m. The genus displays a clear Malesian biogeographic pattern, being largely absent from mainland Southeast Asia except for isolated records in southern Myanmar and the Thai peninsula.

Like most bamboos, Dinochloa is wind‑pollinated, releasing pollen during a synchronized flowering event. Seeds are dispersed chiefly by gravity and water; many species develop buoyant caryopses that can be carried by streams. Cytological data are scarce, but chromosome counts reported for a few taxa fit the common bamboo base number x = 12, with 2n = 48 (Sungkaew et al., 2012).

Molecular phylogenies place Dinochloa as a distinct lineage within tribe Bambuseae, sister to Dendrocalamus (Sungkaew et al., 2012). Some authors have treated the genus as a subgenus of Bambusa (Clark, 1996), a view that remains contested; current checklists retain Dinochloa as an independent genus (POWO, 2024; WFO, 2024). Infrageneric sections have been proposed but lack broad support.

Several species are harvested locally for basketry, garden trellises and ornamental climbers; the graceful arching culms make Dinochloa popular in tropical horticulture, and the genus is not considered invasive.

Habitat loss through logging, agricultural conversion and peat‑swamp drainage threatens many narrow endemics, and a comprehensive red‑list assessment is lacking. Future work should integrate field surveys, phylogenetic resolution and ex‑situ conservation to safeguard the genus.

Pick a Species to see its components: