Culms 1.5–3 m, 0.5–1.5 cm in diam.; internodes terete, 10–16 cm, sometimes nearly solid at culm base, hollow further up; wall thin or thick; nodes very prominent, glabrous; root thorns sharp and sparse, or blunt and dense. Culm sheaths deciduous, oblong, papery, tawny strigose, attenuate into slightly convex apex ca. 6 mm wide; auricles absent; ligule ca. 1.5 mm, irregularly serrate; blade linear, 4–11 × 0.4–0.5 cm, both surfaces pubescent. Leaves 3–7 per ultimate branch; sheaths glabrous, margins ciliate; ligule slightly convex, ca. 1 mm, puberulent; auricles absent or tiny; oral setae 0.5–1 cm; blade linear-lanceolate, 3–16 × 0.3–1.2 cm. Inflorescence a panicle, terminal to leafy, pubescent branches. Spikelets 0.8–1 cm; florets 2 or 3. Glumes 2; rachilla flattened, 4–5 mm, densely pubescent; lemma lanceolate, 0.8–1 cm, papery, pubescent; palea about as long as or slightly longer than lemma; lodicules ovate, one shorter and narrower. Anthers unknown. Style short; stigmas 2. Caryopsis brown, 3.5–8.5 mm, glabrous, with a persistent style. New shoots Sep–Oct.

The young shoots are harvested, and the culms are used for construction.

* Montane, evergreen, broad-leaved forests. S Yunnan.