金竹 jin zhu

Culms 6–15 m, 4–10 cm in diam.; internodes green or sulfur-yellow, usually with yellow or green stripes, 20–45 cm, initially thinly white powdery, glabrous, with small holes or crystalline spots (visible under 10 × lens); wall ca. 5 mm thick; nodal ridge not prominent or nearly so at unbranched nodes in larger culms; sheath scar slightly prominent, thin. Culm sheaths yellow or yellow-brown with green veins and brown rounded or more irregular spots of various sizes, thinly white powdery, glabrous; auricles and oral setae absent; ligule green-yellow, arcuate or truncate, margin pale green or white ciliate; blade reflexed, green with orange margins, narrowly triangular to linear, weakly crinkled. Leaves 2–5 per ultimate branch; sheath subglabrous or distally puberulent; auricles and oral setae usually well developed; blade oblong-lanceolate to lanceolate, 5.6–13 × 1.1–2.2 cm. Inflorescence not known. New shoots May. 2n = 48*.

* Anhui, Fujian, Henan, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Shandong, Zhejiang [cultivated in Japan, N Africa, Europe, and NorthAmerica].

The hard but rather brittle culms are used in house construction and for handles of farm tools. The species is commonly planted for ornament.