Bambusa multiplex (Lour.) Raeusch. ex Schult. & Schult.f.
by W.R. Sykes
Dense clump-forming; habit spreading. Culms very numerous, 3-5 m × 1-2 cm diam. (except in small cultivated forms), many uniformly deep green but always some with prominent yellow stripes or bands. Culm-sheath with caducous black hairs; ligule short, inconspicuous; auricles 0; sheath-blade triangular. Branches several at each node, often branched secondarily, forming a tuft, the central branch largest. Leaf-sheath with long white apical bristles. Ligule abbreviated. Auricles present. Leaf-blade 6-15 × 0.6-1.5 cm, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, glaucous, abaxially finely puberulent. Inflorescence culms short, arising from periphery of clump, very slender. Spikelets sessile, several-flowered, in small distant clusters; bracts ensheathing clusters 1.3-1.8 cm. Lemma = palea. Lodicules membranous.
N.: Hamilton East (Waikato River bank). Roadside bank and nearby gully, in scrub dominated by naturalised spp.; probably originating from cast out garden refuse.
Naturalised from south China.
The plant sometimes cultivated in North Id as B. eutuldoides McClure appears to be indistinguishable from B. multiplex 'Alphonse Karr'. Both, therefore, have some culms longitudinally striped yellow and green, a feature found in other spp. of bamboo, but not in any growing wild in N.Z.
