Culms to 8 m, ca. 3.5 cm in diam.; internodes to 32 cm, initially white powdery, glabrous or slightly scabrid when old; wall ca. 4 mm thick; nodes elevated, nodal ridge equal to or more prominent than sheath scar. Culm sheaths green, purple striped, margins yellow-brown, deciduously strigose; auricles extending from base of blade, purple, broadly ovate, small; oral setae short; ligule purple, arcuate, ca. 1.5 mm, ciliolate; blade erect, purple-green, triangular to narrowly triangular. Leaves 1–3 per ultimate branch; oral setae well developed; blade deep green, 6–11.5 × 1–2 cm, thick, abaxially white powdery. Inflorescence not known. New shoots early May.
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