Indosasa levigata Z. P. Wang & G. H. Ye; I. tinctilimba McClure.

Culms to 15 m, to 10 cm in diam.; internodes initially deep green, yellow in age, sometimes spotted and striate, 40–50 cm, glaucous below nodes, glabrous; nodes prominent. Culm sheath light orange, purple or yellow, unspotted or sometimes minutely spotted, striate, setose (glabrous on smaller culms), glaucous; auricles small (absent on small culms), falcate; oral setae radiate; ligule arcuate, ciliolate; blade green, triangular or lanceolate, constricted at base. Leaves usually 1 per ultimate branch, rarely 2 with apical leaf inverted; sheath purple; blade elliptic-lanceolate, 8–22 × 1.5–3.5 cm, glabrous, secondary veins 4–6-paired. Flowering branchlets usually leafless. Pseudospikelets solitary or in pairs, robust, slightly compressed, 6–8 × ca. 1 cm, bracts 4–8; florets 6–8. Rachilla internodes ca. 2 mm, glabrous. Glumes usually 4, thin, glabrous; lemma glabrous; palea shorter and narrower than lemma, glabrous; lodicules glabrous. Anthers yellow. Ovary and style glabrous. New shoots Apr, fl. Jun–Jul.

This species is used for the manufacture of bamboo furniture, for which its mottled culms are considered superior.

In Fl. China 22, this species was treated as Indosasa shibataeoides McClure (Lingnan Univ. Sci. Bull. 9: 32. 1940 ["shibataeaoides"]); however, after publication, it was discovered that the accepted name should be I. acutiligulata.

* Evergreen forests, forming large areas of understory; 300–1200 m. N Guangdong, N Guangxi, S Hunan.