Flora of New Zealand Series

Type species: P. bambusoides Siebold et Zucc.

Tall or medium-sized, often diffuse; rhizomes short or long with monopodial branching; shoots arising from lateral buds; culms well spaced. Culm nodes prominent; internodes hollow, flattened or grooved on alternate sides above each node, usually terete below lowest branches. Culm-sheath deciduous, usually < internodes, often darkly spotted. Branches usually 3 per node, central branch small, rudimentary or 0, the others markedly unequal. Leaf-sheath often with oral bristles and auricles. Leaf-blade distinctly tessellate, apex characteristically dying long before remainder of leaf-blade (at least in N.Z.). Inflorescence a panicle, composed of many spike-like clusters. Spikelets subtended by large ± foliaceous bracts, usually 5-13-flowered. Glumes (0)-2-(3). Lodicules 3. Stamens 3. Stigmas 3.

50-60 spp. in eastern Asia, westwards to the Himalaya, southwards to Indochina, all except 2 or 3 spp. indigenous or endemic to China. Naturalised spp. 3.

Culm height in N.Z. is generally very variable; plants in cool eastern areas of South Id are much shorter than many of those in warmer parts of North Id. Some species bear culm-sheath auricles which may be ephemeral and lost even before the deciduous sheath falls, and on smaller culm shoots (especially those at the ends of running rhizomes) auricles are often absent. Oral bristles around the ligule are also often deciduous.