Bambusa oldhamii Munro

Bambusa oldhamii is commonly cultivated in Taiwan for its very high-quality shoots.

Culms 6–12 m, 3–9 cm in diam.; internodes slightly flexuose, 20–35 cm, initially white powdery, glabrous; wall 4–12 mm thick; nodes flat. Branches many from mid-culm up, 3 dominant. Culm sheaths deciduous, leathery, dark brown spinous-hairy, soon glabrescent; auricles small, rounded, ciliate; ligule ca. 1 mm, subentire; blade erect, base ca. 1/2 as wide as sheath apex. Leaf sheaths initially hispid; ligule truncate, ca. 1 mm; auricles suborbicular; oral setae few; blade oblong-lanceolate, 15–30 × 3–6 cm. Pseudospikelets 2.7–3 × 0.7–1 cm; bracts 3–5; florets 5–9; rachilla not disarticulating, internodes 2–3 mm. Glumes 1, 0.9–1 × ca. 0.8 cm; lemma similar to glumes, ovate, ca. 1.7 × 1.3 cm; palea ca. 1.3 cm; lodicules 3, ca. 3.5 mm. Anthers ca. 8 mm. Ovary ovoid, ca. 2 mm; style ca. 5 mm; stigmas 3. Caryopsis unknown. New shoots May–Nov, fl. summer–autumn.

* Plains. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan, S Zhejiang.

Bambusa atrovirens T. H. Wen; Dendrocalamopsis atro-virens (T. H. Wen) P. C. Keng ex W. T. Lin; D. oldhamii (Munro) P. C. Keng; Leleba oldhamii (Munro) Nakai; Sino-calamus oldhamii (Munro) McClure.