甜笋竹 tian sun zhu

Culms 4–8 m, ca. 3 cm in diam.; internodes 12–15 cm, finely ribbed, initially white powdery; wall ca. 4 mm thick; nodal ridge slightly elevated, nearly as prominent as sheath scar. Culm sheaths purple-green, densely speckled, deciduously strigose, margins glabrous; auricles green-purple, narrowly falcate; oral setae long, wavy; ligule pale purple-green, arcuate, narrow, ciliate; blade reflexed, purple-green, linear, crinkled. Leaves 2 or 3 per ultimate branch; auricles small or absent, purple; oral setae present; ligule exserted, purple; blade thin, 4.5–12 × 1–1.7 cm, abaxially pilosulose. New shoots mid Apr.

* Forests on slopes; ca. 600 m. Guangdong, Hainan, Hunan; cultivated in Fujian and Zhejiang.

The shoots are delicious, and the culms are used for tool handles. This species is sometimes considered a synonym of Phyllostachys viridiglaucescens.