Phyllostachys Sieb. & Zucc.
From the Greek, leaf-spike.
Including Sinoarundinaria Ohwi
Habit, vegetative morphology. Arborescent or shrubby perennial; rhizomatous. The flowering culms leafy. Culms 300–2000 cm high; woody and persistent; to 20 cm in diameter; flattened on one side; branched above. Primary branches/mid-culm node 2 (but rebranching). Culm sheaths deciduous in their entirety. Culm internodes hollow. Rhizomes leptomorph. Plants unarmed. Leaves not basally aggregated; auriculate, or non-auriculate; with auricular setae. Leaf blades broad; pseudopetiolate; cross veined; disarticulating from the sheaths; rolled in bud.
Reproductive organization. Plants bisexual, with bisexual spikelets; with hermaphrodite florets.
Inflorescence. Inflorescence determinate; compound paniculate (of spicate, 1-spikeleted branchlets, aggregated into spatheate clusters); spatheate; a complex of ‘partial inflorescences’ and intervening foliar organs (with or without foliage leaves). Spikelet-bearing axes ‘racemes’ and very much reduced; clustered; persistent. Spikelets not secund.
Female-fertile spikelets. Spikelets 18–80 mm long; compressed laterally to not noticeably compressed; disarticulating above the glumes; disarticulating between the florets. Rachilla prolonged beyond the uppermost female-fertile floret; hairless (glabrous). Hairy callus absent.
Glumes one per spikelet, or two (or 3, and the lateral spikelets with an outer bract at the base); shorter than the adjacent lemmas; pointed; awnless. Lower glume many-nerved. Upper glume many nerved. Spikelets with female-fertile florets only, or with incomplete florets. The incomplete florets if present, distal to the female-fertile florets. Spikelets without proximal incomplete florets.
Female-fertile florets 1–4. Lemmas entire; pointed; awnless, or mucronate (?); carinate to non-carinate; many veined. Palea present; relatively long; apically notched; awnless, without apical setae to with apical setae; several nerved; 2-keeled. Lodicules present; 2, or 3; free; membranous; ciliate, or glabrous; heavily vascularized. Stamens 3. Anthers penicillate, or not penicillate; with the connective apically prolonged, or without an apically prolonged connective. Ovary glabrous; with a conspicuous apical appendage. The appendage broadly conical, fleshy. Styles fused (into one, long). Stigmas 2–3.
Fruit, embryo and seedling. Fruit longitudinally grooved. Hilum long-linear. Embryo small. Endosperm containing compound starch grains. Embryo with an epiblast; with a scutellar tail; with a negligible mesocotyl internode. Embryonic leaf margins overlapping.
Abaxial leaf blade epidermis. Costal/intercostal zonation conspicuous. Papillae present. Intercostal papillae over-arching the stomata; several per cell. Mid-intercostal long-cells having markedly sinuous walls (thin walled). Microhairs present; panicoid-type (but variable in shape). Stomata common (outlines often more or less obscured by papillae). Subsidiaries low to high dome-shaped. Intercostal short-cells common, or absent or very rare; in cork/silica-cell pairs, or not paired; silicified. Intercostal silica bodies tall-and-narrow. Costal short-cells conspicuously in long rows, or neither distinctly grouped into long rows nor predominantly paired. Costal silica bodies saddle shaped; not sharp-pointed.
Transverse section of leaf blade, physiology. C3; XyMS+. Mesophyll with arm cells; with fusoids (rarely), or without fusoids (usually, or fusoids if present rare and/or inconspicuous). Leaf blade with distinct, prominent adaxial ribs (these low), or adaxially flat; with the ribs more or less constant in size. Midrib conspicuous; having complex vascularization. Bulliforms present in discrete, regular adaxial groups; in simple fans and associated with colourless mesophyll cells to form deeply-penetrating fans. All the vascular bundles accompanied by sclerenchyma. Combined sclerenchyma girders present (with most bundles); forming ‘figures’ (with most bundles).
Cytology. Chromosome base number, x = 12. 2n = 24 (rarely), or 48, or 72. 2 ploid, or 4 ploid, or 6 ploid. Chromosomes ‘small’.
Taxonomy. Bambusoideae; Bambusodae; Bambuseae.
Distribution, ecology, phytogeography. About 50 species; eastern Asia.
Holarctic, Paleotropical, and Neotropical. Boreal. Indomalesian. Eastern Asian. Indian and Indo-Chinese. Caribbean.
Rusts and smuts. Rusts — Stereostratum and Puccinia. Taxonomically wide-ranging species: Stereostratum corticoides, Puccinia longicornis, and Puccinia kusanoi. Smuts from Ustilaginaceae. Ustilaginaceae — Ustilago.
Economic importance. Culms of P. aurea, P. bambusoides, P. glauca, P. nigra, P. vivax used for walking sticks, fishing rods, furniture, handicrafts etc; young shoots of P. aurea, P. bambusoides, P. glauca, P. nidularia, P. vivax eaten as vegetables.
References, etc. Leaf anatomical: Metcalfe 1960; this project.
Cite this publication as: Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M. J. (1992 onwards). ‘Grass Genera of the World: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval; including Synonyms, Morphology, Anatomy, Physiology, Phytochemistry, Cytology, Classification, Pathogens, World and Local Distribution, and References.’ http://biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/. Version: 18th August 1999. Dallwitz (1980), Dallwitz, Paine and Zurcher (1993 onwards, 1998), and Watson and Dallwitz (1994), and Watson, Dallwitz, and Johnston (1986) should also be cited (see References).