Poaceae FAMILY

Oxytenanthera abyssinica

Edibility

2/5

Medicinal

2/5

Safety & Hazards

On ripening, the spiky seed heads may cause wounds which are unresponsive to treatment[ 332 Title The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa. Publication Author Burkil. H. M. Publisher Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew. Year 1985 - 2004 ISBN Description Brief descriptions and details of the uses of over 4,000 plants. A superb, if terse, resource, it is also available electronically on the Web - see http://www.aluka.org/ ].

Botanical Description

Oxytenanthera abyssinica is a stout, vigorous, evergreen bamboo that forms dense clumps of 20 - 100 canes. The thick-walled canes grow 3 - 15 metres tall; scarcely hollow, they are 8 - 10cm in diameter[ 332 Title The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa. Publication Author Burkil. H. M. Publisher Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew. Year 1985 - 2004 ISBN Description Brief descriptions and details of the uses of over 4,000 plants. A superb, if terse, resource, it is also available electronically on the Web - see http://www.aluka.org/ ]. The species sometimes forms immense, impenetrable thickets that can spread over several square kilometres[ 332 Title The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa. Publication Author Burkil. H. M. Publisher Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew. Year 1985 - 2004 ISBN Description Brief descriptions and details of the uses of over 4,000 plants. A superb, if terse, resource, it is also available electronically on the Web - see http://www.aluka.org/ ]. The plant is commonly harvested from the wild for its canes. It is sometimes also cultivated, especially for its seed, in the highlands of Tanzania[ 301 Title Cornucopia II Publication Author Facciola. S. Publisher Kampong Publications, California. Year 1998 ISBN 0-9628087-2-5 Description The second edition of an excellent guide to the edible uses of plants, though it does not give any details of cultivation etc. , 332 Title The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa. Publication Author Burkil. H. M. Publisher Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew. Year 1985 - 2004 ISBN Description Brief descriptions and details of the uses of over 4,000 plants. A superb, if terse, resource, it is also available electronically on the Web - see http://www.aluka.org/ ].

Habitat & Origin

Origintropical

Native RangeTropical Africa - Senegal to Eritrea and Ethiopia, south to Angola, Mozambique and northern S. Africa.

HabitatDry forest and soudanian woodland[ 332 Title The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa. Publication Author Burkil. H. M. Publisher Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew. Year 1985 - 2004 ISBN Description Brief descriptions and details of the uses of over 4,000 plants. A superb, if terse, resource, it is also available electronically on the Web - see http://www.aluka.org/ ]. Along banks of perennial watercourses, in damp places at the bases of hills, in moorland, on slopes of wooded hills, often on termite mounds from sea level to 2,000 metres[ 308 Title Flora Zambesiaca Publication Author Website http://apps.kew.org/efloras/fz/intro.html Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description An excellent online flora of plants from the Zambezi River basin. It lists a number of the plant uses as well as the habitats and botanical descriptions of the plants. , 610 Title Flora of Tropical East Africa Publication Author Beentje H.J. Website http://plants.jstor.org/search?st=396814 Publisher Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew. Year 2002 ISBN Description Available on-line, a modern flora of East Africa. ].