Bans / Male Bamboo
Dendrocalamus strictus
Also known as Solid Bamboo
- Habit
- Shrub
- Found in India
- Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan & more
- Flowering
- October-March
How to identify Bans
Identify Bans by combining habit, leaf characters, flower or fruit details, location, and its family pattern. Do not rely on one feature alone.
- Look for a shrub habit.
- Check the distinctive field mark: Nearly solid culms, common structural bamboo (male bamboo).
- Confirm flower colour: White.
- Confirm fruit surface: Smooth, not spiny.
- In season, compare flowering and fruiting time: October-March.
- In India, compare location records such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, West Bengal and nearby regions.
- Confirm it sits within the Poaceae family pattern, then compare close relatives before deciding it is Bans.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Dendrocalamus strictus
- Genus
- Dendrocalamus
- Family
- Poaceae
- Habit
- Shrub
- Habitat
- Deciduous forests, also grown in the plains
- Habitat type
- Forest, Cultivated
- Distribution
- India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Singapore and Java
- Found in India
- Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Odisha, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh
- Flowering & fruiting
- October-March
- Conservation status
- Not Evaluated (NE)
Leaf characters
- Arrangement
- Alternate
Typical of the Poaceae family — a field-mark hint, not measured for this exact species.
Flower & fruit characters
- Flower colour
- Whiterecorded“Young shoots are brown in color and covered with white blooms.” — Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Fruit surface
- Smooth, not spinyrecorded
Typical of the family
- Flower symmetry
- Actinomorphic (radially symmetrical)
- Inflorescence
- Spike
- Fruit
- Grain
Characters marked “recorded” are for Bans itself; the rest are typical of the Poaceae family — flowering plants only.
Local Names
- Hindi
- बांस Bans, bans, কড়াইল
- Bengali
- বাঁশ Bamsa, Karali, কড়াইল | লাঠি বাঁশ
- Tamil
- சிறுமூங்கில் Chiru-munkil, கல்மூங்கில் Kal-munkil, காட்டுமூங்கில் Kattu-munkil, சிறுமூங்கில்
- Telugu
- పోతువెదురు Potu Veduru
- Kannada
- ಬಿದಿರು Bidiru
- Malayalam
- കല്ലന്മുള Kallanmula, കല്ലൻമുള, Dendrocalamus strictus
- Marathi
- बांस, बास Bans, उढा Udha
About Bans
A member of the Poaceae family, Male bamboo (Dendrocalamus strictus) is a shrub. In India it has been recorded in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and 12 other states. It grows in deciduous forests, also grown in the plains. Flowering and fruiting run from October to March.
Poaceae
Grass family
Bans belongs to the Poaceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
Explore the Poaceae familySnap it. Know it.
Point your camera at Bans or any plant and SASYA identifies it instantly — on-device, offline, and private.
Common plant problems
If you are starting from symptoms instead of a diagnosis, use the plant disease symptom checker to narrow the cause before treating.
All plant problem & care guides