Melocanna baccifera (Roxb.) Kurz locally
known as muli bans, is the predominant bamboo
species of Bangladesh. In Bangladesh at occurs
naturally in the forests of Chittagong, Chittagong
Hill Tracis, Sylhcl, Cox’s Bazar and northern part
of Mymcnsing. According to Gamble (1896), the
muli bamboo is naturally distributed throughout
Eastern Bengal and Burma from Garo and Khasia
Hill to Chittagong and Aracan, and again in
Tcnasscrim. McClure (1966) reported that the
natural home of this plant apparently is “in the Hill
Tracts of East Bengal”. The species occurs both as
undergrowth in many of the timber stands and as
pure bamboo vegetation over extensive areas
mainly on well drained slopes specially in the
forest openings. It constitutes 98% of bamboo
vegetation in Kassalong Reserve, 65% in
Rankhcon Reserve of Chittagong, Sylhcl and
northern part of Mymcnsing and more than 70%
of the total forest bamboo resource (Chowdhury
1984). It is more or less an evergreen species.
The clumps arc diffused and open producing
clums at varying interval in all directions due to
underground elongated (1-2 m) rhizome necks
developed from the ramiflying sympodial rhizome
system (Banik 1980). Il is interesting to note that
the natural habitat of this species is restricted to the
high rainfall hilly areas (250-600 cm per annum)
of the world. The species with net-like extensive
rhizome system might have been selected naturally
in the region for protecting the forest soil from
erosion. Besides this ccologic importance, muli
bamboo is the main raw material for rural housing and also die principal source of withes for making
basketry and matting. The suitability of making
paper by muli bamboo was demonstrated about 70
years ago by Railt (1929). In 1954, the
Kamaphuli Paper Mill was established at Kaptai
by utilizing the total natural stands of bamboos of
whose M. baccifera provides 85-100 per cent
(McClure 1966). Moreover, another industrial
product, high quality rayon, is also being
produced in the Mills by using muli as raw
material. Thus, both from ccologic and economic
points of view, M. baccifera is an important
bamboo resource for Bangladesh.