红壳雷竹 hong ke lei zhu

Phyllostachys primotina T. H. Wen.

Culms to 8 m, ca. 4.5 cm in diam.; internodes ca. 20 cm, initially thickly white powdery especially below nodes, glabrous; wall ca. 5 mm thick; nodal ridge flat, as prominent as sheath scar, or raised and more prominent than sheath scar in slender culms. Culm sheaths brown-red or distally green on slender culms, sparsely small spotted, denser proximally, sometimes obscurely blotched, sparsely strigose on large culms, glabrous on small culms; auricles purple-brown, falcate; oral setae flexuose, purple; ligule arcuate or subtruncate, relatively tall, margin with long or shorter, dark purple or gray-white cilia; blade erect or reflexed, green to purple-brown, triangular to linear-triangular, wavy. Leaves 3 or 4 per ultimate branch; auricles purple-green, ovate or suborbicular; oral setae radiate; ligule faintly purple, ca. 2 mm or more, narrowed upward, margin with long, slender cilia, apex obtuse; blade to 13 × 1.5 cm, abaxially puberulent or glabrous except at base, adaxially glabrous. Flowering branchlets spicate; spikelets with 2 or 3 florets. Glumes 1 or 2; lemma ca. 2.2 cm, densely pubescent especially toward apex; palea ca. 1.8 cm, pilose; lodicules ca. 4 mm. Anthers ca. 7 mm. Stigmas 3. New shoots Apr–May, fl. Apr–May. 2n = 48*.

* Cultivated. Fujian, Zhejiang.

This species is grown principally for its long season of prolific edible shoot production.