木竹 mu zhu

Bambusa shuangliuensis T. P. Yi.

Culms 8–12 m, 4–6 cm in diam., basally slightly flexuose, apically slightly drooping; internodes 30–35 cm; wall thick; lower internodes usually initially densely stiffly dark brown strigose, basal internodes sometimes with several inconspicuous pale yellow stripes; nodes with a ring of gray-white silky hairs below and above sheath scar and a ring of stiff, brown hairs on sheath scar, several basal nodes usually with short aerial roots; branching from 3rd or 4th node up. Branches usually 3–12 on mid-culm and basal nodes; central 3 dominant, reflexed; those on lower nodes usually with branchlets specialized into weak or tough thorns. Culm sheaths tardily deciduous, ribbed-striate when dry, glabrous or with stiff, dark brown hairs near margins and base, apex slightly oblique and truncate; auricles extremely unequal, abaxially densely hispidulous; larger auricle ovate-oblong, oblong, or narrowly reniform, inflated outward, undulate, wrinkled, ca. 1.5 cm wide; smaller auricle subovate or elliptic, ca. 1 cm wide, undulate, wrinkled; ligule 4–5 mm, dentate, fimbriate; blade persistent, erect, subtriangular or ovate, base nearly 2/5 as wide as sheath apex. Leaf blade linear-lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, usually 10–18 × 1–1.7 cm, abaxially densely pubescent, adaxially glabrous. Pseudospikelets linear-lanceolate, compressed, to 3 cm; prophylls obtuse at apex, keels ciliolate; gemmiferous bracts 3–8, ovate, 1–4 mm, margins ciliolate or subglabrous near apex, apex obtuse and finely tipped; florets ca. 9, apical 1 or 2 florets sterile; rachilla segments 2–3 mm, apex ciliolate. Glumes absent; lemma ovate-lanceolate, to 8 mm, abaxially glabrous, many veined, margins ciliolate near apex, finely tipped, apex obtuse or acute and scabrous; palea longer or shorter than lemma, keels ciliate or scabrous at apex, 2- or 3-veined between keels, apex penicillate; lodicules 3, subequal, ovate or obovate, margins ciliate. Anther obtuse at apex. Ovary obovoid, apex thickened and hairy; style very short; stigmas 3, scabrid. Fl. Oct–Dec.

* Open fields, around villages. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Sichuan.

The culms are used for poles and scaffolding, and the young shoots are edible.