苦竹 ku zhu

Culms 3–5 m, 1.5–2 cm in diam.; internodes green or green-purple, spotted, yellow-green when old, cylindrical, 27–29(–38) cm, basally weakly flattened above branches, glabrous or hairy; wall ca. 6 mm thick; nodes prominent; intranode ca. 6 mm. Leafy branchlets sometimes pendulous. Culm sheaths green, densely glaucous, abaxially glabrous or hairy, densely so at base, margins ciliate and apically orange or withered; auricles obscure; ligule truncate, 1–2 mm, densely glaucous, ciliolate; blade narrowly lanceolate, margins serrulate. Leaves 3 or 4 per ultimate branch; sheath straw-colored, glabrous; auricles and oral setae absent; ligule purple-red, ca. 2 mm; pseudopetiole ca. 2 mm; blade elliptic-lanceolate, 4–20 × 2–2.9 cm, secondary veins 4–8-paired, base cuneate, margin serrulate, apex acuminate. Inflorescence racemose or paniculate. Spikelets 3–6, 4–7 cm, glaucous, pedicels hairy; florets 8–13; rachilla internodes 4–5 mm. Glumes 3–5, enlarged upward; lemma ovate-lanceolate; palea longer than lemma, rarely equal in length, ciliate, glaucous and slightly hairy between keels, apex acute. Lodicules 3, ovate or obovate, posterior narrow, apical margins ciliolate. Anthers light yellow. Ovary narrow, glabrous; styles short; stigmas 3. New shoots Apr–Jun, fl. Apr–May.

* Plains to low hills, frequently cultivated. Anhui, Fujian, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang.