Low growing bamboos with slow spreading rhizomes and stems characteristically d-shaped in section, slender, 3-4 mm wide, solid, and with conspicuous nodes. Branches 3-5 per node, short and more or less equal. Leaves 1-2 per branch, tessellated. Inflorescence a panicle. Spikelets with 2-3 glumes and 1-2 florets.

Mostly grown for the delicate and ornamental stems.

Division.

D-shaped thin zig-zag solid stems and more or less elliptic leaves (in the cultivated species).

7 species from south-eastern China and south-western Japan.