油苦竹 you ku zhu

Acidosasa lentiginosa W. T. Lin & Z. J. Feng; Arundi-naria oleosa (T. H. Wen) Demoly; A. chinensis C. S. Chao & G. Y. Yang; Pleioblastus longiinternodius B. M. Yang; P. longi-spiculatus B. M. Yang; Polyanthus longispiculatus (B. M. Yang) C. H. Hu.

Culms diffuse, 3–5 m, 1–3 cm in diam.; internodes initially grass-green, yellow when old, cylindrical, 18–20(–26) cm, grooved above branches, glossy, glabrous; wall ca. 3 mm thick; nodes prominent, deciduously brown setose. Culm sheaths light green, slightly lustrous, base light brown setose, otherwise glabrous; ligules truncate or slightly concave, 1–2 mm, margin ciliolate; blade erect or reflexed, green, lanceolate. Leaves 3 or 4 per ultimate branch; sheath glabrous; auricles and oral setae often absent, rarely 2, short; ligules rounded or truncate, ca. 2 mm, slightly hairy, apex not uniform; pseudopetiole 2–5 mm; blade linear-lanceolate, 12–20 × 1.3–2.2 cm, slightly hairy, secondary veins 5–7-paired, base broadly cuneate, margin serrulate, apex caudate. Inflorescence paniculate, lateral; florets 11–13 per spikelet. Glumes 2–4, apex rounded, beaked; lemma subglabrous, apex acute; palea about as long as lemma, keels ciliolate, apex acuminate; lodicules 3, thick, ± rhomboid, margin ciliolate. Ovary cylindrical; stigmas 2 or 3.

* Mountain slopes; ca. 800 m. Fujian, Jiangxi, Yunnan, Zhejiang.

A plant cultivated in the West under the names Brachystachyum densiflorum as well as P. oleosus is not in fact this species but an Oligo-stachyum. Pleioblastus oleosus is possibly a synonym of P. maculatus.

The shoots are edible, and the culms are often used for weaving.