箬叶竹 ruo ye zhu

Culms 0.8–1 m, 0.35–0.8 cm in diam.; internodes dull green, (8–)10–55 cm, white pubescent, with a pale red-brown tomentose ring below nodes; wall 1.5–2 mm thick; nodes prominent. Culm sheaths purple-green, leathery, dark brown strigose and white tomentose, base with raised corky ring; auricles well developed, purple-green, becoming brown when dry; oral setae radiate, brown, ca. 1 cm; ligule truncate, 0.5–1 mm, ciliate or not; blade purple-green, narrowly triangular to ovate-lanceolate, base abruptly rounded, apex acuminate. Leaf sheath rigid, glabrous or abaxially initially finely strigose, outer margin ciliate; auricles usually developed; oral setae radiate, brown; ligule truncate, 1–1.5 mm, puberulent, fimbriate, margin setose; blade 10–35 × 1.5–6.5 cm, abaxially glabrous or puberulent, secondary veins 5–12 pairs, veins forming rectangular tessellations, base cuneate, apex long acuminate. Panicles 8–15 cm, rather narrow, axis densely white tomentose. Spikelets greenish or straw-colored at maturity, 1.5–3.7 cm; florets 4–6. Rachilla internodes compressed-clavate, 6.8–7.2 mm, angular, densely white tomentose, apex truncate. Glumes 2, acuminate with an awnlike point; first glume 3–5 mm, 3–5-veined, second glume 6–8 mm, 7–9-veined; lemma oblong-lanceolate, apex awnlike, first lemma 1–1.4 cm, 11–13-veined; palea of 1st floret 0.7–1 cm, keels ciliate. Anthers ca. 5 mm. Stigmas 2. Caryopsis oblong. New shoots Apr–May, fl. May–Jul. 2n = 48*.

* Mountain slopes, hillsides, roadsides; ca. 500 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan; cultivated in Zhejiang.