Culms ca. 9 m, ca. 5 cm in diam.; internodes green, 20–25 cm, initially white powdery below nodes, glabrous; nodal ridge as prominent as sheath scar. Culm sheaths green, tinged red-brown, with scattered, dark red-brown spots, sparsely deciduously hairy, attenuate toward apex, margins glabrous; auricles and oral setae absent; ligule to 1 cm, peaked, fimbriate, both sides decurrent; blade erect or reflexed, narrowly linear, sometimes distally undulate. Leaves 3 or 4 per ultimate branch; sheath glabrous; auricles ovate; oral setae to 1.3 cm; ligule to 1 mm, ciliate; blade 8–15 × 1–1.8 cm, abaxially green and glabrous, adaxially gray-green and puberulent. Inflorescence not known. New shoots May–Jun.

This species is planted primarily for its edible shoots; it is famous for its high rates of shoot production.

* Cultivated. Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Zhejiang.