曲竿竹 qu gan zhu

Bambusa flexuosa Carrière, Rev. Hort. 1870: 320. 1870, not Munro (1868).

Culms 5–6(–10) m, 2–4(–7) cm in diam., basally usually ± flexuose; internodes initially green, later gray, to 30 cm or more, initially perceptibly white powdery, especially below nodes, becoming glabrous at maturity; wall 3–5 mm thick; nodal ridge moderately elevated, as prominent as sheath scar. Culm sheaths green-brown with purple veins, sometimes with pale yellow or yellow-green streaks, usually with sparse to rather dense small brown spots, not white powdery, glabrous; auricles and oral setae absent; ligule arcuate, tall, narrow, margin with long and deciduous or short cilia, apex sometimes notched; blade reflexed, green-purple with pale yellow margins, narrowly lanceolate to linear, flat. Leaves 2 or 3 per ultimate branch; auricles and oral setae usually absent; ligule moderately exserted; blade 8–12 × 1–2 cm, abaxially proximally pilose. Flowering branchlets spicate, 4–6 cm; scaly bracts 3–6, gradually larger; spathes 4–6, both sides puberulent, auricles and oral setae absent, blade small, lanceolate to subulate. Pseudospikelets 2 or 3 per spathe. Spikelets narrowly lanceolate, 2.5–3.5 cm; florets 1–3, uppermost floret usually fertile. Glumes 1; rachilla terminally extended, awnlike; internodes hairy; lemma ca. 2.5 cm, glabrous, apex extending into an awnlike point; palea ca. 2.2 cm, subglabrous or sparsely pubescent at apex; lodicules narrowly ovate-lanceolate, ca. 2 mm. Anthers ca. 1 cm. Stigmas 3. New shoots Apr–May, fl. Apr–May. 2n = 48*.

* Cultivated. Anhui, Hebei, Henan, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Yunnan, Zhejiang.

The shoots are delicious, and the culms are used as tool handles and are split for weaving.