Pleioblastus Nakai

Abstract

Shrubby or arborescent bamboos. Rhizomes monopodium or amphipodium. Culms diffuse, seldom pluricaespitose, erect; internodes terete, slightly grooved above branches, a ring of white powder below nodes, hollow or subsolid, pith diaphragm-shaped or spongy; sheath scars corky, prominent; nodes flat to prominent. Branches 3–7 per node, more at upper nodes, without obvious dominant branches, spreading to erect. Culm leaves deciduous, tardily deciduous or persistent, sheaths thickly papery to leathery, a hairy ring usually present at the abaxial base, margins ciliate; auricles and oral setae present or absent; ligules truncate to arched; blades subulate to lanceolate, base constricted, often reflexed. Foliage leaves 3–5 per branchlet, several species up to 13; sheaths with erect or curved oral setae; blades oblong or narrowly lanceolate, transverse veins rectangular. Panicles with a few to many spikelets, lateral, or rarely terminal; spikelets slender or narrowly lanceolate, green or purple, some white powdery, florets a few to many; rachilla internodes pilose, apex cup-shaped, often ciliate; glumes 2 or 5, apex acute, margins ciliate; palea 2-keeled, grooved, apex blunt, margins ciliate; lodicules 3, the rear one ca. 2 times as long as the front two; stamens 3, filaments free, anthers yellow, subulate; style 1, stigmas 3 (2), plumose. Caryopses oblong. New shoots May to June. Flowering summer.