FAO Forestry country profiles - natural woody vegetation

Bamboo and Palms

In the montane forests of Kivu between 2 350 and 2 550 m, as in Rwanda and Burundi, the "broadleaved-conifer forest" ­ to use Pierlot's term (1966) ­ is often made up of an open coppice-with-standards system of Podocarpus usambarensis over a coppice of Arundinaria alpina. However, the upper storey is often very sparse or even absent, so that almost pure bamboo forests are found.

Oxytenanthera abyssinica bamboo forests are indicated on the 1:5 000 000 vegetation map of Shaba (the Kamina and Lubindi region, south of Kolwezi and north of Pweto, on the border with Zambia) and in the north-east of the country in the Mahagi and Aru region on the border with Uganda.