Bergbambos tessellata (Nees) Stapleton

Loosely tufted bamboo, 1-5 m high; growth habit sympodial with each new rhizome becoming a culm; rhizome stout, woody; culm up to 20 mm in diam., profusely branched above, dark maroon when young. Leaf blade 50-150 x 8-15 mm, stiff, narrowly lanceolate, tapering to an acuminate apex forming a hard point, strongly cross-veined (therefore the specific name tessellatus. Inflorescence compound, of several racemes, each of 3-5 spikelets subtended by a bract, these gathered into a fascicle and partly enveloped by a spathe; lowermost spikelet sessile. Spikelet 16-18 mm long, with tessellate venation; glumes 9.9-15.0 mm long, ± equal; lower glume shorter than upper, acute; upper glume pointed. Florets 1-several, bisexual; lemma 10-or 11-nerved, awnless or awned; palea 10.0-12.5 mm long; anther 7.8-8.0 mm long. Flowering in local populations after many years, followed by death (herbarium records seen by Soderstrom and Ellis (1982) show flowering in 1908 and 1953.

Stream lines, damp rocky slopes and forest margins, at elevations from 1,500-2,500 metres.

Can be grown by cuttings, divisions or seedlings.