White wax Borinda

Borinda albocerea (Hsueh & T. P. Yi) Stapleton, Kew Bull. 53(2): 455. 1998; Fargesia albocerea Hsueh & T. P. Yi, J. Bamboo Res. 7(2): 45. 1988.  

Culms 3–4 m, 8–20 mm in diam.; internodes 8–14 cm, cylindrical, densely white-powdery, glabrous, rigid, nearly solid; nodes with prominent to greatly prominent supra-nodal ridge, waxy, sheath scar prominent to greatly prominent; branches 3–5, deflexed; buds ovate, yellow-brown, area near to margins puberulous. Culm sheaths slowly deciduous, leathery, triangularly narrowly rounded, apex triangular, brown-setose abaxially, longitudinal ribs prominent, margins glabrous; auricles absent or obscure; oral setae few, yellow-brown, ca. 1.5–4 mm, erect; ligule 1–1.5 mm, nearly truncate, glabrous, blade linear-lanceolate, revolute, proximally slightly pilose, readily deciduous. Leaves 3–4 per ultimate branch; sheath glabrous; auricles absent or obscure; oral setae scarce, short, yellow-brown; ligule ca. 1 mm, truncate, glabrous; blade lanceolate, 3.5–8 × 0.5–1.2 cm, apex long-acuminate, base nearly rounded or broadly cuneate, both surfaces glabrous, secondary veins 3–5-paired, margins spinescent-serrulate, transverse veins elongated-tessellate, dense, not very clear. Inflorescence unknown. Name from the Latin albus, ‘white’, and cereus, ‘waxy’, referring to the densely pruinose young culm internodes.

Recently sent from W Yunnan, China by Prof. J. R. Hsueh, as several different clones, which may not all belong to this species. Many Borinda species have substantial white wax on the culm internodes, and this character should be used with caution in the identification of species. Exact origin unrecorded.