坭竹 ni zhu

Culms 7–10 m, 3.5–6 cm in diam., basally flexuose, apically suberect; internodes 30–40 cm, inflated near base, initially white powdery, basal internodes initially sparsely stiffly gray-white or brown strigose; wall 3–5 mm thick; nodes glabrous; branching to base. Branches usually 3 at lower nodes with branchlets sometimes specialized into weak thorns; several on middle and upper nodes, 3 central branches dominant. Culm sheaths deciduous, ribbed-striate when dry, glabrous, apex obliquely truncate, with a triangular protuberance on higher shoulder; auricles obviously unequal, sometimes weak; larger auricle ovate-lanceolate or narrowly oblong, 5–6 mm; smaller auricle ovate or elliptic, 2–3 mm; oral setae slender, undulate; ligule arched, 2–3 mm, finely dentate and fimbriate; blade deciduous, erect, narrowly triangular, base not narrowed, nearly 2/3 as wide as sheath apex. Leaf blade linear-lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, 8.5–14.5 × 0.8–1.3 cm, abaxially densely pubescent, adaxially glabrous. Pseudospikelets linear, 2–3 cm; prophylls ovate, ca. 1.5 mm, keels ciliate, apex obtuse; gemmiferous bracts 4, ovate, 1.5–3.5 mm, apex obtuse and mucronate; florets 4–8; rachilla segments flat, ca. 3.5 mm, slightly hairy, apex inflated and ciliolate. Glumes 1, ovate-elliptic, 6–6.5 mm, 15-veined, apex acute, mucronate; lemma ovate-oblong, ca. 1.1 cm, 17-veined, apex acute, mucronate; palea nearly as long as lemma or shorter, keels glabrous, 3-veined between and on either side of keels, apex obtuse with a cluster of white hairs; lodicules 3, subequal, ca. 1.5 mm, margins long ciliate toward apex, base thickened, anterior 2 broadly elliptic, posterior ovate. Anther obtuse at apex. Ovary ovoid, ca. 0.5 mm, base stalked, apex hairy; style ca. 0.5 mm; stigmas 3. Fruit unknown.

Low hills, around villages. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Jiangxi [Vietnam].

This species was misidentified as Bambusa tulda by Merrill and Chun (Sunyatsenia 2: 207. 1935).