神农箭竹 shen nong jian zhu

Arundinaria murielae Gamble, Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew 1920: 344. 1920, nom. cons. prop.; A. sparsiflora Rendle (1904), nom. rej. prop.; Fargesia parvifolia T. P. Yi; F. maluo T. P. Yi; F. sparsiflora (Rendle) Ohrnberger; Sinarundinaria murielae (Gamble) Nakai; S. sparsiflora (Rendle) P. C. Keng; Thamnocalamus murielae (Gamble) Demoly; T. sparsiflorus (Rendle) P. C. Keng.

Culms 1–5 m, 0.5–1.4 cm in diam.; internodes terete, 15–23 cm, initially sparsely white powdery, longitudinal ribs weakly conspicuous; wall 1.5–2.5 mm thick, cavity filled with lamellate pith; supra-nodal ridges level or weakly prominent; sheath scar prominent. Branches 3–10 per node, deflexed, solid. Culm sheaths deciduous, distally asymmetrically rounded, leathery, glabrous or sometimes distally gray setose, margins initially yellow-brown ciliolate, longitudinal ribs conspicuous; auricles and oral setae absent; ligule arcuate or truncate, 0.5–1 mm, glabrous; blade reflexed, triangular, narrowly triangular, or linear, glabrous, margins level or rolled. Leaves 1 or 2(–6) per ultimate branch; sheath glabrous; auricles absent, oral setae present, yellow-brown; ligule truncate, ca. 1 mm, glabrous; blade lanceolate, 6–10 × 0.8–1.2 cm, glabrous, secondary veins 3- or 4-paired, transverse veins distinct, base nearly rounded or broadly cuneate, one margin spinescent-serrulate, other margin obscurely so. Inflorescence unknown. New shoots May.

* 2800–3000 m. Hubei (Shennongjia), Sichuan.

This species is very important in Western horticulture as one of the hardiest bamboos introduced. It was widely cultivated as Tham-nocalamus spathaceus, after being erroneously placed in synonymy of Fargesia spathacea, which was then transferred, also in error, into Thamnocalamus (Soderstrom, Brittonia 31: 495. 1979). The earlier name Arundinaria sparsiflora is frequently considered conspecific, and the conservation of A. murielae against that name has been proposed.

The shoots are edible.