Retz., Obs. Bot. 5:24.1789.
Erect bamboo to 20 (25) m tall; culmsolive-green, shiny, 11-12 cm diam, erect to broadly arching,densely rooting at lower nodes, occurring in congested clumps of ca4 m or more in diameter; internodes mostly 10-25 cm long near thebase, the basal ones thick-walled (to ca 1 cm thick); nodes with aconspicuous leaf-sheath scar and with many stout branches to 3 cmdiam, soon becoming slender, usually l- or 2-branched, wide-spreading,forming a tangled mass to 5 m high, heavily armed at thenodes, the spines to 1.5 cm long; branch apices alsospine-like; sheath blades broadly triangular, appressed(reflexed at upper nodes); branches on main culm to 2 m or morelong, their axes flexuose, the nodes with a prominentring-like sheath scar and often with stout spines, the spinesoften weakly curved, with short internodes; the lower 1.5 cm of thebase of each branch encircled by several short sheathlike bracts,the smaller leafy branches with leaves clustered mostly towardtheir apices. Sheaths glabrous except often short-pubescent alongupper margin, truncate to auriculate at apex, often bearing afew, thick, usually deciduous trichomes; leaf bladeslinear-lanceolate, acuminate, (2.5) 7-15 (20) cm long, (5) 8-18(25) mm wide, glabrous or with a few long trichomes near base onupper surface, glabrous or puberulent on lower surface.Inflorescences not seen. Croat 17038.
Cultivated in the Laboratory Clearing northwest of the dininghall.
Native to India; introduced occasionally in other tropicalareas of the world.
