BAMBOOS form the backbone of rural economy of many
southeast Asian countries. In recent years, bamboos have
become important in social forestry programmes due to
their short rotation cycles, fast growth and the possibility
to be progressively harvested on a sustainable basis.
Dendrocalamus hamiltonii is one such species which is
popular for its strong culms that are used as structural
support in local buildings, and the leaves serve as nutri-tive fodder for milch cattle during winter months. Natural
regeneration is dwindling due to the anthropogenic pres-sure on the local habitats. The traditional propagation
method by ‘offsets’ limits the number of propagules, and
even use of nodal segments for propagation is cumber-some and labour-intensive for large-scale establishment
of bamboo plantations. Therefore, it is imperative to
adopt alternative methods for rapid multiplication, and
tissue culture techniques come handy. Although multiple
shoot formation is accomplished with comparative ease,
rooting of such shoots is still inconsistent in D. hamil-tonii, and only up to 25–30% shows rooting1. In this con-text, induction of somatic embryogenesis, and ger-mination of embryoids into plantlets is a promising
alternative