妈竹 ma zhu

Bambusa fecunda McClure.

Culms 3–6 m, 1–2.5 cm in diam., basally erect, apically suberect; internodes slightly curved or straight, 23–30 cm, initially thinly white powdery, glabrous; wall slightly thick; nodes flat, from mid-culm upward with a ring of white powder above sheath scar; branching from 3rd to 5th node up. Branches several to many, clustered, central dominant. Culm sheaths deciduous, rigid when dry, glabrous, apex slightly slanted outward and asymmetrically broadly arched; auricles unequal, minutely wrinkled, usually partly covered by blade base; larger auricle usually elliptic to broadly elliptic, 1–1.3 × 0.7–0.8 cm; smaller auricle usually elliptic, ca. 0.4 × 0.2 cm; oral setae very fine, curved; ligule ca. 1.5 mm, margin erose, very fine ciliolate; blade deciduous, erect, asymmetrically ovate-lanceolate, longer than sheath, abaxially initially thinly white powdery, glabrous, base rounded, swollen on one side, obviously narrower than sheath apex. Leaf blade linear-lanceolate, 10–16 × 1.4–2 cm, abaxially glaucous, densely pubescent, adaxially sparsely deciduously long hispid. Pseudospikelets solitary or in clusters of 2 or 3 at each node of flowering branches, linear or linear-lanceolate, 2–3 × 0.5–0.7 cm; prophylls 2-keeled; basal bracts gemmiferous; florets 3–7, middle 2 or 3 fertile; rachilla segments flat, 3–4 mm, apex thickened and cupular, hairy. Glumes 1, ovate-oblong, 6.5–7 mm, 11–13-veined, glabrous, acute; lemma with very small purple spots, oblong-lanceolate, 1.2–1.5 cm, glabrous, 17–19-veined, apex acute, mucronate; palea 1–1.2 cm, ciliate toward apex, 4-veined between and 3-veined on either side of keels, apex penicillate; lodicules 3; anterior 2 narrow and oblique, ca. 4 mm, margins long ciliate; posterior 1 nearly oblong, apex 3-toothed. Anthers yellow, ca. 4.5 mm, apex retuse. Ovary very broadly ovoid, stalked, apex thickened and hispidulous; style ca. 0.8 mm, hispidulous; stigmas 3, ca. 2 mm, plumose. Caryopsis initially obconiform, ca. 7 mm, apex hispidulous, style base persistent.

* Ravines, forests, around villages. Hainan.