Small bamboo, sometimes forming a dense stand; rhizomes long and mostly forming a tangled network. Culm to 1 m, erect, usually green or pale green, sometimes purplish; nodes with one slender branch or occasionally with a second very small branch. Culm-sheaths glabrous. Leaf-sheath hairy at first and with raised longitudinal ribs, becoming ± glabrous and smooth. Leaf-blade usually 7-13 × 0.8-2.2 cm, lanceolate with aristate apex, initially uniformly green, later often becoming whitish to pale brown near margins above; abaxially ± pubescent.