水竹 shui zhu

Phyllostachys congesta Rendle; P. purpurata McClure; P. purpureomaculata W. T. Lin & Z. J. Feng.

Culms ca. 6 m or more, to 3 cm in diam.; internodes to 30 cm, initially white powdery, sparsely puberulent; wall 3–5 mm thick; nodal ridge flat and as prominent as sheath scar in large culms, or strongly elevated and more prominent than sheath scar in slender culms; intranode ca. 5 mm. Branches deflexed or subhorizontal. Culm sheaths deep green, tinged with purple, white powdery, glabrous or sparsely strigose, margins ciliate; auricles purple, ovate to elliptic, sometimes shortly falcate, small, absent on small shoots; oral setae well developed or few, erect, and fine on small shoots; ligule slightly concave or weakly arcuate, short, white ciliolate; blade erect, green, usually tinged with purple, rarely entirely purple triangular to narrowly triangular, cupped, flat or slightly wavy. Leaves (1 or)2(or 3) per ultimate branch; sheath glabrous, margins ciliate; auricles absent; oral setae deciduous, erect; ligule short; blade 5.5–12.5 × 1–1.7 cm, abaxially proximally pilose. Flowering branchlets densely capitate, (1.6–)1.8–2(–2.2) cm, usually lateral on mature leafy branches; scaly bracts 4–6, gradually larger, or terminating young leafy branches then subtended by 1 or 2 spathes with an ovate or narrow blade; spathes 2–6, broadly ovate or broader, 0.9–1.2 cm, papery or thinly leathery, gradually narrowed and thinned in distal ones, puberulent at apex, margins ciliate, otherwise glabrous or subglabrous, blade absent or very small, mucronate. Pseudospikelets (1–)4–7 per spathe, subtended by bracts, bracts variable in form and size, to 1.2 cm, membranous, keeled, tenuously 5–7-veined, apex pubescent, acuminate. Spikelets to 1.5 cm; florets 3–7, distal ones sterile. Glumes absent to 3, resembling bracts in size, form, and texture, sometimes uppermost one similar to lemma; rachilla internodes 1.5–2 mm, clavate, glabrous, apex subtruncate; lemma lanceolate, 0.8–1.2 cm, distal 1/2–2/3 pubescent, 9–13-veined, distally keeled, apex subulate-acuminate; palea shorter than lemma, puberulent except for base; lodicules rhomboid-ovate, ca. 3 mm, tenuously 7-veined, margins ciliate. Anthers 5–6 mm. Style ca. 5 mm; stigmas (2 or)3. Caryopsis narrowly ovoid, ca. 3.5 × 1.5 mm. New shoots Apr–May, fl. Apr–Aug.

* Forests or scrub on slopes, river banks, valleys. Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang.

Phyllostachys cerata McClure (Lingnan Univ. Sci. Bull. 9: 41. 1940) and P. dubia Keng (Sinensia 11: 407. 1940, "dubius") may be further synonyms of this species.

Phyllostachys heteroclada is widely cultivated for its high-quality culms, which are split for weaving articles such as the famous bamboo mats produced in Yiyang, Hunan.