Bambusa tuldoides Munro

Bambusa tuldoides 'Swollen Internode' (鼓节竹 gu jie zhu), with culm internodes shortened and swollen at base, is frequently found in gardens. The compression of its internodes is weaker than in B. ventricosa.

This species was misidentified as Bambusa tulda by Bentham and as B. blumeana by Hooker and Arnott.

Culms 6–10 m, 3–5 cm in diam., apically slightly drooping; internodes 30–36 cm, initially thinly white powdery; wall thick; nodes slightly prominent, basal 1 or 2 with rings of gray-white silky hairs below and above sheath scar; branching from base up. Branches several to many, clustered, central 3 dominant. Culm sheaths deciduous, convex and slanted along outer margin for 1/10–1/8 of length of sheath, with 1–3 pale yellow stripes toward outer margin, glabrous, apex asymmetrically arched; auricles unequal, outer one larger, ovate to ovate-elliptic, ca. 2.5 × 1–1.4 cm, slightly wrinkled; inner one smaller, ovate to elliptic, ascending, ca. 1/2 size of larger; oral setae slender, undulate; ligule 3–4 mm, laciniate, densely fimbriate; blade deciduous, erect, asymmetrically ovate-triangular to narrowly triangular, sparsely deciduously stiffly brown or pale brown strigose, base slightly rounded and then extending outward to join auricles for 5–7 mm, nearly 2/3–3/4 width of sheath apex, margin slightly wrinkled near base and fringed, apex subulate, acuminate. Leaf blade lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, 10–18 × 1.5–2 cm, abaxially densely pubescent, adaxially glabrous or sparsely pilose near base. Pseudospikelets several at each node of flowering branches, pale green, linear-lanceolate, slightly flat, 2–3 × 0.3–0.4 cm; prophylls 2-keeled, keels ciliate, subtended by sheathlike bracts; gemmiferous bracts 2, glabrous, apex obtuse; florets 6 or 7, proximally and distally sterile; rachilla segments flat, 3–4 mm, apex inflated and cupular, hairy. Glume 1, ovate-oblong, ca. 8.5 mm, glabrous, apex acute; lemma ovate-oblong, 1.1–1.4 cm, ca. 19-veined, glabrous, apex obtuse, mucronate; palea about as long as or slightly shorter than lemma, 4-veined between and 4-veined on either side of keels, penicillate; lodicules 3, anterior 2 obovate, oblique, short, ca. 2.5 mm, broad, margins long ciliate; posterior one long, ca. 3 mm, narrow. Anthers ca. 3 mm, apex emarginate. Ovary obovoid, ca. 1.2 mm, stalked, apex thickened and hispid; style ca. 0.7 mm, hispid; stigmas 3, ca. 5.5 mm. Caryopsis terete, slightly curved, ca. 8 mm, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., apex obtuse and thickened, hispid, with remains of style.

* Low hills, river banks, commonly cultivated around villages. Guangdong, Guangxi.

Bambusa angulata Munro; B. breviflora Munro; B. fauriei Hackel; B. flavonoda W. T. Lin; B. longiflora W. T. Lin; B. parvifolia W. T. Lin; Chimonobambusa angulata (Munro) Nakai; Leleba fauriei (Hackel) Nakai; L. tuldoides (Munro) Nakai; Tetragonocalamus angulatus (Munro) Nakai.