Guadua angustifolia Kunth, Poaceae

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Present on Pacific Islands?  yes

Primarily a threat at high elevations?  no

Other Latin names:  Bambusa guadua Bonpl.; Guadua aculeata Rupr. ex E. Fourn.

Common name(s): [more details]

English: guadua

Spanish: caña brava, guadua

Habit:  grass

Description:  "A large, thorny bamboo growing in open clumps; rhizomes very thick, promptly determinate; culms commonly to 20 meters, sometimes approaching 30 meters in height, commonly 10-15 cm, exceptionally 20 cm in diameter, erect, broadly arched above; internodes hollow, usually perceptibly sulcate above the point of attachment of branch complements, the lower ones glabrous or sparsely strewn with appressed, later spreading, sharp, amber-colored hairs, the surface aciculate and gradually glabrescent, the upper ones typically more densely clothed with such hairs, aciculate and at length glabrescent, the lower internodes very short (V: 7-10 cm long and 14.5 cm in diameter, mid-culm internode up to 34 cm long and 13 cm in diameter), the wood up to 2 cm, rarely 2.5 cm, thick at the base of the culm, about 1 cm thick in the greater part of the length in large culms; nodes with a rather prominent sheath scar, especially at the base of the culm, the lower ones marked by a dense band of appressed, cream- or buff-colored hairs extending about 10 mm below and 15 mm above the sheath scar, these gradually weathering off; culm sheaths deciduous in the upper part of the culm, usually more or less persistent at the lower nodes, densely and minutely tomentose on the back, especially toward the base, with small, brown, persistent hairs, and more or less densely strewn with longer, stiffer, coarser, sharp, antrorse-spreading, persistent or easily detachable hairs, and usually densely fringed on the margins with brown cilia; auricles and oral setae usually lacking entirely in the lower sheaths; ligule very variable, usually more or less strongly convex, sometimes truncate or humped, about as wide as the apex of the sheath proper, erose or dentate and ciliate on the margin; culm sheath blade roughly triangular, about as broad at the base as the apex of the sheath proper, persistent, appressed to the culm, densely strigose on the inner surface with fine, light-brown hairs in narrow, vertical bands separated by glabrous bands of similar width, glabrous or nearly so on the outer surface, usually fringed on the margins with brown cilia.  Branches (in large culms, suppressed throughout the lower half or two-thirds of the height except the basal 6-10 nodes) solitary and very thorny at the basal nodes, usually 1 + 1 or 1 + 2 above the middle of the culm and progressively more fasiculate above, developing numerous supplemental branches in age, the twigs abscissing ultimately.  Leaf sheaths weakly or not at all keeled, finely striate with salient veins often connected above by clearly visible transverse veinlets, glabrous throughout or weakly ciliolate on the margins; auricles usually not much developed beyond a callus at the base of the oral setae; oral setae weakly to strongly developed, few to numerous, pale, antrorse-appressed, obscurely scabrous at the base, glabrous and very attenuate above; petiole collar strongly flaring, sometimes recurved when dry, glabrous and glossy outside, undulate, sometimes emarginate at the apex, glabrous or ciliolate on the margin; liguel very short, scarcely exserted; petiole up to 1 cm long, slender, glabrous or nearly so, often with a well-developed, dark, often puberulent pulvinus at the base; leaf blades extremely variable in size and shape, those on young growth ovate-lanceolate, up to 17 cm x 50 mm, those on old wood up to 21 cm x 24 mm, oblong- to linear-lanceolate, commonly glabrous or nearly so on the lower surface, sometimes glabrous on both surfaces; midrib and numerous secondary veins paler and salient on the lower surface, the latter scarcely distinguishable from the tertiary veins on the upper surface, transverse ridges often visible here and there on the lower surface.  Inflorescences borne on leafless or leafy twigs, commonly 6-7 cm long, sometimes shorter or longer, commonly 4-5 mm wide, linear, rather strongly flattened and tight (the florets gaping only at anthesis), solitary at first and usually more or less fasciculate at length by the development of additional ones from buds in the axils of the gemmiparous bracts, but complete ones never numerous in a given fascicle, since the spikelets usually absciss as they approach or reach maturity, rachis segments up to 3-4 mm long, tomentose; prophylls 2-5 mm long, narrowly to broadly triangular to ovate (sometimes subtending a bud which may form a pseudospikelet); gemmiparous bracts 1-2, ovate, obtuse, apiculate, 5-7 mm long; spikelets curved, commonly 14-14-flowered, the apical 4-6 florets more or less tabescent; rachilla segments in the middle of the spikelet up to a little more than half as long as the adjacent palea, shorter above and below, thickish, clavate, somewhat flattened, often narrowly sulcate, not angular, glossy below, hispidulous toward the cupulate apex and ciliolate on the margin of the apex; lemmas up to 13 mm long in the middle of the spikelet, gradually reduced to about 10 mm above and below, ovate-lanceolate, salient-nerved, apiculate, glossy and obscurely hispidulous dorsally, glabrous on the margins, the lower ones obtuse, the upper ones acute; palea strongly exserted beyond the margins of the lemma except in the uppermost 4-6 tabescent florets and sometimes not exserted in the lowest lemma, very broad, oblong, broadly obtuse at the apex, broadly sulcate and hispidulous between the broadly winged keels, minutely ciliolate on the keels near the apex, glabrous and glossy between the keels and the margins; lodicules 3, unequal, ovate to oblong, rarely sublanceolate, minutely toothed on the margin at the apex, exceedingly thin, transparent, colorless, with numerous slender veins in the lower half, up to 4-5 mm long (shorter, reddish above and ciliolate on the margins in somewhat rudimentary florets); exserted anthers yellow, commonly 6-7 mm long, the connective not produced above; ovary slender, subtriquetrous, glabrous, the style somewhat thickened basally, narrowly conical, densely antrorse-hispidulous, asymmetrically divided into 3 villous stigmas of unequal length.  Mature fruit not seen" (Swallen, 1955; pp. 150-153).

Description from GrassBase.

Habitat/ecology:  In South America, "common in well-watered, fertile regions at elevations below 1,500 m, particularly in Colombia and Ecuador" (Swallen, 1955; pp. 150-153).

Propagation:  Seed

Native range:  Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador; cultivated and naturalized elsewhere (GRIN).

Presence:

Pacific
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Ecuador (Galápagos Islands) Floreana Group	Floreana Island	introduced invasive cultivated	Charles Darwin Foundation (2008)
Ecuador (Galápagos Islands) Isabela Group	Isabela Island	introduced invasive cultivated	Charles Darwin Foundation (2008)
Ecuador (Galápagos Islands) Isabela Group	Volcán Sierra Negra, Isabela Island	introduced invasive cultivated	Charles Darwin Foundation (2008)
Ecuador (Galápagos Islands) San Cristóbal Group	San Cristóbal Island	introduced invasive cultivated	Charles Darwin Foundation (2008)
Ecuador (Galápagos Islands) Santa Cruz Group	Santa Cruz Island	introduced invasive cultivated	Charles Darwin Foundation (2008)
Philippines Philippine Islands	Philippine Islands	introduced cultivated	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2013)

Pacific Rim
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Central America Central America (Pacific rim)	Costa Rica (Republic of)	introduced invasive	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2013) Naturalized
Central America Central America (Pacific rim)	El Salvador (Republic of)	introduced invasive	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2013) Naturalized
Central America Central America (Pacific rim)	Guatemala (Republic of)	introduced invasive	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2013) Naturalized
Central America Central America (Pacific rim)	Honduras (Republic of)	introduced invasive	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2013) Naturalized
Central America Central America (Pacific rim)	Nicaragua (Republic of)	introduced invasive	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2013) Naturalized
Central America Central America (Pacific rim)	Panama (Republic of)	introduced invasive	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2013) Naturalized
Mexico Mexico	Mexico (United Mexican States)	introduced invasive	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2013) Naturalized
South America (Pacific rim) South America (Pacific rim)	Colombia	native cultivated	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2013)
South America (Pacific rim) South America (Pacific rim)	Ecuador (Republic of) (continental)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2013)
South America (Pacific rim) South America (Pacific rim)	Perú (Republic of)	introduced invasive	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2013) Naturalized

Control:  If you know of control methods for Guadua angustifolia, please let us know.