Pleioblastus Nakai
by W.R. Sykes
Type species: P. communis (Makino) Nakai
Very small to medium-sized with rhizomes monopodial, short or elongated. Culms dense or diffuse, sometimes very slender; nodes prominent; internodes terete, ± hollow, fistula sometimes very narrow. Culm-sheaths ± persistent, < internodes, concolorous; auricles 0; oral bristles glabrous. Branches usually 1-7 per node. Leaf-sheath with oral bristles usually present (at least when young). Leaf-blade usually conspicuously tessellate, abaxially usually partly glaucous or glauc-esent and partly green. Inflorescence racemose or paniculate. Spikelets 5-13-flowered. Lodicules 3, ciliate. Stamens 3. Stigmas 3.
Key
c. 20 spp. in China and Japan. Naturalised spp. 5.
Pleioblastus was formerly included in Arundinaria L. but the latter has been greatly reduced and some authors consider it to be a monotypic genus confined to North America.
Species of Pleioblastus are sometimes difficult to identify and P. chino has often been confused with the larger related sp. P. simonii (Carrière) Nakai (≡Arundinaria simonii (Carrière) Rivière et C.Rivière). Although no sp. of Pleioblastus has more than very minor status in the wild, the two variegated species treated here are sometimes aggressive and troublesome within gardens.
