青皮竹 qing pi zhu

Culms 8–10 m, 3–5 cm in diam., apically slightly drooping; internodes green, 40–70 cm, initially thinly white powdery, ± stiffly pale brown hairy; wall 2–5 mm thick; nodes flat, glabrous; branching from 7th to 11th node upward. Culm sheaths deciduous, leathery, rigid, slightly glossy, basally stiffly dull brown strigose, apex slightly slanted and asymmetrical, broadly arched; auricles unequal, ends not decurrent, larger one narrowly oblong to lanceolate, slightly slanted, ca. 1.5 × 0.4–0.5 cm, smaller one oblong, not slanted, ca. 1/2 size of larger; oral setae slender, undulate; ligule ca. 2 mm, dentate or sometimes laciniate, ciliolate; blade deciduous, erect, narrowly ovate-triangular, ca. 2/3 as long as sheath, abaxially sometimes stiffly hairy between veins, basally sparsely dull brown hairy, adaxially scabrid, base slightly cordate, narrowed, nearly 2/3 as wide as sheath apex. Leaf blade linear-lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, 9–17 × 1–2 cm, abaxially densely pubescent, adaxially glabrous. Pseudospikelets solitary or several to many, clustered at each node of flowering branches, dull purple when fresh, bronze-colored when dry, linear-lanceolate, slightly curved, 3–4.5 × 0.5–0.8 cm; prophylls ovate, ca. 3 mm, keels glabrous; gemmiferous bracts 2 or 3, ovate, 3–4.5 mm, glabrous, apex acute, mucronate; florets 5–8, apical one sterile; rachilla segments subterete or flat, ca. 4 mm, apex enlarged. Glumes 1, ovate, ca. 6 mm, ca. 20-veined, glabrous, apex acute, mucronate; lemma elliptic, 1.1–1.4 cm, glabrous, ca. 25-veined, apex acute, mucronate; palea lanceolate, 1.2–1.4 cm, slightly longer than lemma, keels glabrous, ca. 10-veined between and 4-veined on either side of keels; lodicules unequal; anterior 2 subspatulate, ca. 3 mm, margins long ciliate; posterior obovate-elliptic, ca. 2 mm. Filaments slender; anthers yellow, ca. 5 mm. Ovary broadly ovoid, ca. 2 mm in diam., base stalked, apex thickened and hispidulous; style ca. 0.7 mm, hispidulous; stigmas 3, 6–7 mm. Mature caryopsis unknown.

* Usually cultivated, riversides, around villages; low elevations. Anhui, Guangdong, Guangxi.