Culms 10–14 m, 4.5–7 cm in diam., basally slightly flexuose, apically slightly drooping; internodes slightly curved, 25–35 cm, initially thinly white powdery, sparsely stiffly white strigose; wall thick; nodes each with a persistent ring of deciduous, stiff, brown hairs, lower ones with a ring of gray-white silky hairs below and above sheath scar. Branches usually solitary on basal ca. 2 nodes, 3 to many from 3rd node upward, 3 dominant branches longer and thicker, branchlets on lower nodes usually specialized into a few weak thorns. Culm sheaths deciduous, thick, leathery, with 1 very narrow pale yellow stripe near outer margin, usually glabrous or with dark brown hairs near base, apex slightly asymmetrical, broadly arched; auricles small, unequal; larger auricle elliptic or suboblong, ca. 1 × 0.6–0.7 cm; smaller auricle contiguous with blade, subelliptic, ca. 1/3 size of larger one; oral setae slender, undulate; ligule 3–4 mm, sparsely dentate or shortly fimbriate; blade erect, asymmetrical, triangular or narrowly triangular, base to 9/10 width of sheath apex. Leaf blade linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, 6.5–12 × 1.3–1.7 cm, abaxially densely pubescent, adaxially glabrous. Pseudospikelets linear, 2–3 cm; prophyll keels ciliate; gemmiferous bracts 3–5, 2.5–3.5 mm, 7–9-veined, obtuse or mucronate; florets 5–12, apical ones sterile; rachilla segments flat, 3–3.5 mm, apex inflated and cupulate with ciliolate margins. Glumes 1, ovate-elliptic, ca. 5 mm, 11-veined, apex acute, mucronate; lemma 9–11 mm, glabrous, 13–15-veined, apex acuminate; palea nearly as long as lemma or slightly longer, keels glabrous, 6-veined between and 2-veined on either side of keels, apex penicillate; lodicules 3, ca. 1.5 mm, long ciliate, anterior 2 oblique, posterior broadly obovate. Filaments slender; anthers ca. 4 mm. Ovary broadly ovoid, ca. 0.5 mm, base stalked, apex thickened and hispid; style ca. 0.3 mm, hispid; stigmas 3, ca. 1.5 mm.
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