佛肚竹 fo du zhu

Leleba ventricosa (McClure) W. C. Lin.

Culms dimorphic; normal culms 8–10 m, 3–5 cm in diam., basally flexuose, apically slightly drooping; internodes 30–35 cm, basally slightly swollen, not white powdery, initially glabrous; lower nodes with rings of gray-white silky hairs below and above sheath scar; branching from 3rd or 4th node up, basal 1 or 2 nodes also with short aerial roots; branches 1–3 on lower nodes; branchlets of these sometimes condensed into weak thorns; branches several to many at mid-culm and upper nodes, with central 3 slightly longer and thicker. Abnormal culms (usual in potted plants) 25–50 cm, 1–2 cm in diam., internodes shortened and swollen at base, branch internodes also shortened and swollen; branches only on upper nodes, usually solitary, without thorns. Culm sheaths deciduous, obviously ribbed-striate, glabrous, apex nearly symmetrical, broadly arched or subtruncate; auricles unequal; larger auricle narrowly ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 5–6 mm; smaller auricle ovate, 3–5 mm; oral setae curved; ligule 0.5–1 mm, very shortly finely fimbriate; blade deciduous, erect or recurved, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, base slightly arched, narrowed, slightly narrower than sheath apex. Leaf sheath glabrous; ligule subtruncate, very short; auricles ovate or falcate; oral setae several, curved; blade linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, 9–18 × 1–2 cm, abaxially densely pubescent, adaxially glabrous. Pseudospikelets solitary or many clustered on each node, linear-lanceolate, slightly compressed, 3–4 cm; prophylls oval, 2.5–3 mm, 2-keeled, apex obtuse; gemmiferous bracts 1 or 2, narrowly ovate, 4–5 mm, 13–15-veined, apex acute; florets 6–8, basal 1 or 2 and apical 2 or 3 usually sterile; rachilla segments flat, 2–3 mm, apex inflated and cupular. Glumes absent or 1, ovate-elliptic, 6.5–8 mm, 15–17-veined, apex acute; lemma ovate-elliptic, 9–11 mm, glabrous, 19–21-veined, apex acute; palea nearly as long as lemma, ciliolate near apex, 4-veined between and on either side of keels, apex acuminate with a cluster of white hairs; lodicules 3, ca. 2 mm, margins long ciliate, anterior 2 slightly asymmetrical, posterior broadly elliptic. Filaments slender; anthers yellow, ca. 6 mm, apex obtuse. Ovary broadly ovoid, 1–1.2 mm, stalked, apex thickened and hairy; style very short, hairy; stigmas 3, ca. 6 mm. Fruit unknown.

* Guangdong.

Widely cultivated in S China as an ornamental potted plant, this bamboo is sometimes considered to be a cultivar of Bambusa tuldoides, but the flowering material on which that decision was based, collected in the United States, may not represent this species. Moreover, in China the culm sheath of B. ventricosa is substantially different from that of B. tuldoides.