Culms 4–6 m, 1–2 cm in diam.; internodes terete, flattened above branches, to 37 cm, basally nearly solid, hollow further up culm; wall thick; nodes very prominent, minutely white hairy below nodes; root thorns few, short, conical. Culm sheaths gradually deciduous, oblong, thickly papery, proximally glossy-tawny hairy, distally pubescent, attenuate into slightly convex apex ca. 4 mm wide; auricles deciduous, tiny; ligule 1–1.5 mm, ciliate; blade linear, 3–5 × ca. 0.2 cm, both surfaces pubescent. Leaves 3–5 per ultimate branch; sheaths glabrous; auricles absent or tiny; ligule slightly convex, ca. 1 mm; blade linear, 5–14 × 0.5–0.9 cm. Inflorescence a panicle terminal to leafy branch. Spikelets 2.5–4 cm; florets 3–7. Glumes 2; rachilla internodes flattened, 4–5 mm, densely pubescent; lemma lanceolate, 0.9–1 cm, papery, pubescent; palea slightly longer than lemma; lodicules obovate, one shorter and narrower. Anthers unknown. Style short; stigmas 2. Caryopsis unknown. New shoots Apr–May, fl. May.

The shoots are eaten, and the culms are used for construction.

* Evergreen broad-leaved forests; 1600–1700 m. SE Yunnan (Xichou).