Calcutta Bamboo

Culms 7–17 m, (3–)6–10 cm in diam.; internodes 30–45 cm, white powdery; wall thick, culm often solid. Branches several, main mid-culm ones 3. Culm sheaths deciduous, orange-brown, ca. 3/4 as long as internodes, thickly papery, margins ciliate, apex rounded; auricles absent; ligule 1–3 mm, serrulate; blade erect, narrowly triangular.

Leaf-sheaths initially sparsely hairy, becoming glabrous; ligule short, serrulate; blade usually narrowly lanceolate, 5–30 × 1–3 cm. Pseudospikelet clusters 2.5–5 cm in diam. Spikelets 8–15 mm, usually densely pubescent; fertile florets 2–4. Glumes 2 or more, 6–8 mm, long mucronate; lemma 9–10 mm, apex long mucronate; palea 8–9 mm. Anthers yellow, ca. 5 mm, connective apically produced. Ovary turbinate; style ca. 6.5 mm; stigmas 1. Caryopsis 6–8 mm.