乌芽竹 wu ya zhu

Culms 7–8 m, 3–5 cm in diam.; internodes green, 29–31 cm, initially inconspicuously white powdery, glabrous; wall 3–5 mm thick; nodes with both ridge and sheath scar moderately prominent. Culm sheaths dark green, with purple-black stripes and pale yellow-brown margins, base sometimes purple-red, or deep green with purple veins in shade, unmarked, glabrous or rarely sparsely strigose; auricles absent; oral setae absent or occasionally sparse; ligule green-brown, truncate, short, broad, completely covered by base of blade, subglabrous or minutely ciliolate; blade erect, dark green, with purple-red margins, triangular to triangular-lanceolate, wavy to weakly crinkled. Leaves 2 or 3 per ultimate branch; auricles and oral setae inconspicuous; ligule short, scarcely exserted, densely puberulent, sometimes hirsute at base; blade 5.5–13 × 0.9–1.6 cm. Inflorescence not known. New shoots late Apr to early May.

* Cultivated. Jiangsu, Zhejiang.

The shoots are edible, and the culms are used split or unsplit for weaving bamboo articles.