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Bamboo Sur takes bamboo to the Next Level in
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sub-saharan African countries with establishing
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the first commercial O. Abyssinica plantations.

 

Bamboo Sur is pleased to introduce this thick-walled bamboo specie that is drought-resistant, grows in Savannah woodland and in semi-arid wooded grasland.

This superbamboo is able to produce 9 -10 ton bamboo charcoal per hectare per year with a minimum rainfall of 350 - 800 mm.
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Bamboo Sur’s plantations will be the first commercial scale O. Abyssinica plantations in Africa. These new bamboo plantations will be a continuous source of bamboo charcoal supply for household cooking while it prevents deforestation.

 

Advantages of this bamboo are:
• Clump-forming bamboo with a robust rhizome up to 10 cm in diameter
• Clump dense, typically consisting of 20–100 (exceptionally up to 200) stems (culms) between 10–15 m tall and up to 10 cm in diameter.
• Grows with a minimum required annual rainfall between 350 and 800 mm
• Average annual temperatures are 20 to 27°C, with monthly average daily maxima of 30 to 36°C and daily minima of 7 to 17°C.
• It is a lowland bamboo, occurring from sea-level up to 2000 m altitude, but mainly at 300–1500 m
• Propagation is done by seeds or by stem cuttings
• Produce edible shoots

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Growth and development

  • A single shoot, which may reach 1 m in height, is produced in the first year from a rhizome.
  • From the third season onwards, several shoots are produced annually. 
  • Rhizomes penetrate 30 cm in 3 years.
  • Stems reach 1.2 cm in diameter and 1.8–3.0 m in height within a few years of germination, reaching full height and diameter in 4–8 years.
  • New stems break through the soil surface in the rainy season. Extension growth slows down after 3–4 weeks, and ceases after 2–4 months.
  • Branches develop from the upper nodes from about the fifth week of active stem growth. Foliage is mostly shed in the late dry season.
  • The stems mature in 3 years and may survive for 8 years, but they are over-mature and unsuitable for harvesting from 6 years of age onwards.
  • Clump diameters range from 1 m to 8 m, and clumps may contain 20–100 (exceptionally up to 200) stems.
  • New shoots appear at the peripheries of clumps. Clump longevity of 30 years has been estimated for Oxytenanthera abyssinica in Sudan, but is less when mass flowering occurs and rhizomes die with the stems.


A pure stand of Oxytenanthera abyssinica contains up to 750 clumps and 30,000 stems per hectare.