Abstract

Ochlandra travancorica is the most common species of reed bamboo occurring along the hills of Kerala. It occurs both as an understory of evergreen forests and also as pure reed brakes. The soil cover provided by the plant along with its fibrous root mats improve the soil and protect it from the tropical monsoon rains of high erosivity. The paper describes the soil and its properties under natural O. travancorica brakes in Ranny Forest Division, one of the prominent reed areas of Kerala. The soil in general is dark brown acidic sandy loam with granular structure, high porosity, good aggregate stability and high water holding capacity. A comparison with other natural forests reveal that reed bamboo of Kerala is very efficient in soil conservation