Culm (botany)

This article is about the plant part. For other uses, see Culm.
A tuft of sugarcane with red, thick stems
Culms of sugarcane
Use for building roofs in Ethiopia

A culm is the aerial (above-ground) stem of a grass or sedge. It is derived from Latin culmus, meaning "stalk." It originally referred to the stem of any type of plant.[1]

In horticulture or agriculture, it is especially used to describe the stalk or woody stems of bamboo, cane or grain grasses.

  1. ^ MacGillavray, William A Manual of Botany London 1840. p. 36.