Sarocalamus, a New Sino-Himalayan Bamboo Genus (Poaceae: Bambusoideae)

Sarocalamus Stapleton, a new genus distributed from the eastern Himalayas to the Sich- uan Province of China, is described. Among all Asian bamboo genera it shares the greatest number of morphological characters with the North Ameri- can genus Arundinaria Michaux. However, DNA sequencing has suggested that other genera are probably more closely related to Arundinaria, while Sarocalamus appears instead to be a possible sister group to Phyllostachys Siebold & Zuccarini, a ge- nus with some similarities in branching but very different flowers. Biogeographical implications are discussed, and the new combinations Sarocalamus racemosus (Munro) Stapleton, S. faberi (Rendle) Stapleton, and S. spanostachyus (T. P. Yi) Stapleton are made.