According to a study recently published in the journal Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, India is home to Asia’s oldest bamboo.
A team of researchers-including international researchers, found two fossil compressions or impressions of bamboo culms (stems) and after further study noted them to be new species. These species were named Bambusiculmus tirapensis and B. makumensis – as they were found in the Tirap mine of Makum Coalfield in Assam.
These species belonged to the late Oligocene period of about 25 million years ago.
Bambusium deomarense
Researchers also found two impressions of bamboo leaves belonging to new species Bambusium deomarense, and B. arunachalense, named after the Doimara region of Arunachal Pradesh where it was discovered. These leaves were found in the late Miocene to Pliocene sediments, indicating that they were between 11 and three million years old.
According to the study, Yunnan Province in China now has the highest diversity of bamboo, but the oldest fossil in that region is less than 20 million years old, which indicates that Asian bamboo was born in India and then migrated there. This strengthens the theory that bamboo came to Asia from India and not from Europe.
Oldest bamboo fossil in Europe
The European bamboo fossil is about 50 million years old.
