Description from Flora of China
Small to arborescent bamboos, spreading or loosely clumped. Rhizomes leptomorph. Culms diffuse to pluricaespitose, suberect to drooping, 1–7(–13) m tall, 0.5–4(–6) cm thick; internodes terete to flattened on one side above branches. Branch buds tall, with or without promontory, within 2-keeled prophyll, always open at front. Branches (1 or)2–5(–7), subequal. Lateral branch axes always subtended by sheaths, without replication of lateral branches. Culm sheaths deciduous to persistent, blade usually recurved or reflexed, lanceolate, articulate. Leaf sheaths persistent; blade oblong-lanceolate or narrowly lanceolate, small to medium-sized, without marginal necrosis in winter, arrangement random, transverse veins distinct. Inflorescence an open panicle or raceme, flowering branches usually subtended by tiny bracts. Spikelets several to many flowered, slender; rachilla internodes extended, disarticulating. Glumes 1 or 2, mucronate; lemma similar to glumes; palea 2-keeled, apex obtuse; lodicules 3. Stamens 3; filaments free, slender; anthers yellow. Style usually very short; stigmas 2 or 3, plumose. Caryopsis dry, oblong. New shoots May–Jun.
In FRPS (9(1), 1996), Arundinaria was considered a unispecific, North American genus with no Asian representatives at all. A much broader treatment of the genus has also been advocated by several authors. In this treatment the morphologically closest Asian species under Arundinaria, those from Bashania and Sarocalamus, are included. Arundinaria subg. Arundinaria differs in its persistent culm sheaths and larger florets and is restricted to the SE United States.
Taxa incertae sedis
Arundinaria acerba W. T. Lin (J. S. China Agric. Univ. 13(2): 84. 1992) was described from Guangdong.
Arundinaria conghuaensis W. T. Lin (J. Bamboo Res. 19(4): 2. 2000) was described from Guangdong (Conghua). In the protologue it was compared with A. projecta (a synonym of Acidosasa nanunica in this account).
Arundinaria multinervis W. T. Lin & Z. M. Wu (J. S. China Agric. Univ. 11(3): 48. 1990; Indocalamus multinervis (W. T. Lin & Z. M. Wu) W. T. Lin, J. Bamboo Res. 19(4): 17. 2000) was described from sterile material from Guangdong (Shixing).
Arundinaria parvifolia Hackel ex Keng (J. Wash. Acad. Sci. 26: 396. 1936; Fargesia hackelii Ohrnberger; Indocalamus parvifolius (Hackel ex Keng) P. C. Keng) was described from Yunnan. It may be a species of Fargesia, but there is no information on the rhizome.
Arundinaria rectirama W. T. Lin (J. S. China Agric. Univ. 13(2): 85. 1992) was described from Guangdong. The original description is incomplete, and the taxon could belong to any one of several genera of the Arundinariinae.
Arundinaria rigidula E. G. Camus (Not. Syst. 2: 243. 1912; Indocalamus rigidulus (E. G. Camus) Nakai; Yushania rigidula (E. G. Camus) Ohrnberger) was described from Sichuan. It may be a species of Fargesia or Yushania, but there is no information on the rhizome.
Bashania abietina T. P. Yi & L. Yang (J. Bamboo Res. 17(4): 1. 1998) was described from Sichuan. It possibly belongs in Indocalamus rather than Arundinaria subg. Bashania.
About eight species: SW China, E Himalayas, Vietnam, SE United States; five species (four endemic) in China.
(Authors: Zhu Zhengde (朱政德 Chu Cheng-de), Li Dezhu (李德铢); Chris Stapleton)