{"id":2459,"date":"2026-01-26T16:06:51","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T16:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/?p=2459"},"modified":"2026-01-26T16:11:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T16:11:55","slug":"the-discovery-of-the-worlds-first-succulent-bamboo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/2026\/01\/26\/the-discovery-of-the-worlds-first-succulent-bamboo\/","title":{"rendered":"Laobambos calcareus: The Discovery of the World’s First Succulent Bamboo!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Habit
Habit of the succulent bamboo Laobambos calcareus<\/em>. From Haevermans et al, 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Succulence in botany refer to the ability of a plant to store water by varying the size of various organs. Although the Poaceae can exist in varying environments, including the driest seasonal environs, there has been a notable lack of succulence in the list of 12,000 plus members of the family. The one notable exception is the the tiny Dregeochloa pumila<\/em>, which survives in the arid deserts of South Africa, and which is considered by some to be an evolutionary dead end (Males 2017).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Leaves
Leaves of the succulent bamboo Laobambos calcareus<\/em>. From Haevermans et al, 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This changed in 2015, when an expedition along the river at the karstic massif in Khammouane province in central Laos discovered a remarkable bamboo. It was desiccated during the long dry season (which has virtually no rain for four long months), but had stems that expanded and filled up with water during the rainy season (Haevermans et al, 2020)!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ridged
Ridged culm of the succulent bamboo Laobambos calcareus<\/em>. From Haevermans et al, 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When they first saw the species, the bamboo was leafless and the culms wrinkled and “deflated”, with ridges present along their lengths. But a few months later during the prolonged rainy season, leaves had appeared and the culms had taken a fuller, larger inflated profile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Culms

Culms of the succulent bamboo Laobambos calcareus<\/em>. From Haevermans et al, 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Molecular analysis showed that it was most related to two other karst dwelling climbing species, although it does not seem to share any notable morphological characteristics with its sister genera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Phylogenetic
Phylogenetic relationships of the succulent bamboo Laobambos calcareus<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Further studies revealed that neither the leaves nor the rhizomes of the species showed succulence, but that the solid culms demonstrated an amazing ability to increase their diameter when absorbing water into their parenchyma cells. The authors of the paper attributed this to an adaptation towards pulses of water in the karstic habitat of the species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to view video of expanding dried culm after introduction of distilled water.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, given the tendency of woody bamboos towards flowering only after potentially decades of vegetative growth, no inflorescence was seen. But the specimens discovered were morphologically and behaviorally different enough from all other bamboos that it was assigned to its own monospecific genus and species, Laobambos calcareus<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The discovery of the first succulent bamboo is exciting news, but the fact it is only the second grass that has managed to attain this lifestyle may point to limitations in the genetic capabilities of the Poaceae to adapt to an extremely wide range of habits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Literature Cited<\/strong>

Haevermans T, Mantuano D, Zhou M-Y, Lamxay V, Haevermans A, Blanc P, Li D-Z (2020) Discovery of the first succulent bamboo (Poaceae, Bambusoideae) in a new genus from Laos\u2019 karst areas, with a unique adaptation to seasonal drought. PhytoKeys 156: 125-137. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3897\/phytokeys.156.51636

Males, Jamie (2017), Secrets of succulence, Journal of Experimental Botany, Volume 68, Issue 9, 1 April 2017, Pages 2121\u20132134, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/jxb\/erx096<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Succulence in botany refer to the ability of a plant to store water by varying the size of various organs. Although the Poaceae can exist in varying environments, including the driest seasonal environs, there has been a notable lack of succulence in the list of 12,000 plus members of the family. The one notable exception…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_siteseo_robots_primary_cat":"none","footnotes":""},"categories":[48,14,8],"tags":[111],"class_list":["post-2459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bamboo","category-news","category-species-observations","tag-laobambos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2459"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2492,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459\/revisions\/2492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}