牛儿竹 niu er zhu

Culms 10–15 m, 5–7 cm in diam., basally slightly flexuose, apically drooping; internodes 40–50 cm, usually grooved above branches, initially white powdery, glabrous; wall thick; basal nodes with rings of pale brown silky hairs below and above sheath scar and with short aerial roots, with a ring of stiff, dull brown hairs shortly after falling of sheaths; branching from base. Branches many, clustered, central dominant; branchlets of lower branches sometimes shortened into weak thorns. Culm sheaths tardily deciduous, stiffly dull brown strigose near basal margin, apex symmetrical, broadly arched, with a triangular protuberance on one shoulder; auricles unequal, larger auricle to 2 × size of smaller one, oblong; oral setae undulate; ligule 3–4 mm, fimbriate; blade persistent, erect, subtriangular, base slightly rounded, nearly 3/4 width of sheath apex. Leaf blade linear-lanceolate, usually 15–25 × 2–2.5 cm, abaxially densely pubescent, adaxially glabrous. Inflorescence unknown.

* Hills, riversides. Sichuan.

Bambusa prominens differs from B. tuldoides by the culm sheaths having a triangular apical protuberance and dull brown hairs near the basal margin, and the presence of weak thorns.