Culms 8–16 m, 4–10 cm in diam., straight; internodes initially green, becoming yellow-green or yellow, ca. 35 cm, white powdery above and below nodes, densely puberulent; wall ca. 4 mm thick; nodal ridge less prominent than sheath scar, absent at unbranched nodes. Culm sheaths brown-purple, with small sparse dark brown spots and few stripes, strigose; auricles inconspicuous; oral setae purple, long; ligule red-purple, truncate to arcuate, with dense cilia 1–2 mm; blade reflexed, green-purple, with yellow margins, narrowly lanceolate to linear, crinkled. Leaves 1–4 per ultimate branch; oral setae well developed; ligule strongly exserted, long ciliate; blade 10–15 × 0.8–1.5 cm, both surfaces sparsely puberulent. Flowering branchlets spicate, to 10 cm; scaly bracts 4–6, gradually larger; spathes 4–7, glabrous, usually with 1 or 2 oral setae; blade ovate-lanceolate to subulate. Pseudospikelets 2 or 3 per spathe. Spikelets with 2 or 3 florets. Glumes 1, sparsely puberulent; rachilla internodes pubescent; lemma 2–2.5 cm, setulose; palea shorter than lemma, centrally and distally setulose; lodicules oblong-rhomboid, ca. 4 mm, puberulent. Anthers 7–8 mm. Stigmas 2. New shoots Apr, fl. Apr–May.

The tough, compact culms have internodes long and even in length. They are used unsplit for furniture and building materials and split for weaving various articles.

* Broad-leaved forests. Guangxi; also cultivated in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang.