Yushania P. C. Keng

Abstract

Shrubby bamboos. Rhizomes sympodium, culm necks slender and long, 20–50 cm long, less than 1 cm in diameter, internodes 5–12 mm long, ratio between length and diameter over 1, solid or a few hollow, endodermis present in anatomy, air canals present. Culms diffuse, erect, seldom reclined; internodes terete, rarely slightly flattened above branches, hollow or nearly solid, pith granular; sheath scars prominent; nodes flattened or slightly prominent. Culm buds 1, long ovate, adnate. Branches solitary or many per node, when solitary, the branch as thick as culms when many, more slender, for some species branches solitary and thick at lower nodes, branches several at upper nodes, slender. Culm leaves tardily deciduous or persistent, sparsely readily deciduous, leathery or cartilaginous; auricles absent or conspicuous; blades erect or reflexed, deciduous. Foliage leaves several to more than 10 per branchlet; blades small to large, transverse veins distinct. Racemes or panicles terminal on leafy branches, axilla with tuberculate glands, subtended by a small bract; pedicels long and slender, sometimes axilla with tuberculate glands, sometimes base subtended by bracts; florets 2–8(14), cylindrical, purple or purple brown, apical floret sterile; rachilla internodes disarticulated, internode apex swollen, ciliate; glumes 2; lemma mucronate or rarely tapering, longitudinally veined; palea equal to or shorter than lemma, 2-keeled, apex 2-cleft or slightly concave; lodicules 3, pubescent; stamens 3; filaments free, anthers yellow; ovary fusiform or elliptic, style 1, short, stigmas 2, seldom 3, plumose. Caryopses oblong, ventral grooved. Chromosome 2n = 48. New shoots summer. Flowering and fruiting late spring to summer.