泡竹 pao zhu

Schizostachyum leviculme McClure.

Rhizome neck to 1 m, to 1 cm in diam. Culms 5–10 m, 1.2–2 cm in diam.; internodes straight, 13–20 cm or longer, initially glaucous, with white powdery ring below node; nodes with level supra-nodal ridge and sheath scar; intranode ca. 3 mm; branching from ca. 5th node up. Branches ca. 50 cm. Culm sheaths broadly triangular, rather thin, proximally dark brown strigose, apex shallowly concave or truncate; auricles absent or very small; oral setae erect or curved; ligule short, ciliate, denticulate; blade narrowly triangular, striate, with some transverse veinlets. Leaf sheaths initially white powdery to slightly pubescent, glabrescent; auricles inconspicuous or absent; oral setae few or absent; ligule short; petiole 3–6 mm, glabrous; blade oblong-lanceolate, ca. 12.5 × 2–6.8 cm, glabrous, base subrounded to cuneate, asymmetrical, apex acuminate with twisted strigose tip. Pseudospikelets in axil of narrow bracts. Spikelets ca. 5 mm; rachilla extending beyond palea of fertile floret and with a sterile or incomplete floret; fertile floret 1. Glumes large, usually 7-veined, apex mucronate; lemma similar to glume, upper margin ciliate; palea margin strongly involute; lodicules (3 or)4(or 5), large, margin ciliate. Filaments short, separate; anthers apiculate. Ovary narrowly ellipsoid; style long, hollow, apex bifid. Fruit compressed-globose; pericarp crustaceous, readily separable from endosperm.

Forest understories on slopes and hills; 200–1200 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Vietnam].

The rhizomes are used for weaving sieves for selecting young fish; the culms are split for weaving fences.