Guadua Kunth 1822

Guadua Kunth (1822: 150).

TYPE:— Guadua angustifolia Kunth (1822: 253).

Plants cespitose. Culms homomorphic, arborescent to scandent, 3–30 m tall, infra- and supranodal bands of trichomes present. Branch complement with one dominant and several to many smaller secondary branches, with thorns. Culm leaves and foliage leaves clearly distinct. Culm leaves not clearly differentiated along the culm, with erect blades, confluent with the sheath summit, sheath fimbriae present, sometimes absent. Foliage leaf sheaths with fimbriae at the apex, translucent swelling absent, outer ligule present, blades elliptic, lanceolate, linear, oblong, ovate or triangular, midnerve prominent. Synflorescences terminal, indeterminate, with several pseudospikelets in sparsely or densely crowded aggregations; pseudospikelets sessile, bisexual, glumes 0 to several, comprising 1 subtending bract, 1 prophyll, 1–several gemmiparous bracts, with several fertile anthecium, smooth (as far as known), and one rudimentary anthecium. Fruit a basic caryopsis, rarely baccate.

Guadua is a woody bamboo, mainly characterized by its branch complement with one dominant and several to many smaller secondary branches, with thorns, infra- and supranodal bands of trichomes present, culm leaves with erect blades, confluent with the sheath summit, foliage leaves with midnerve prominent and synflorescences composed of pseudospikelets (McClure 1973, Soderstrom & Londoño 1987). The genus has twenty-six species in Central and South America (Kellogg 2015). In Brazil, twenty-one species occur in Amazon, Cerrado, Mata Atlântica and Pampas (Shirasuna et al. 2020). In the Serra do Cachimbo, it is represented by one species.