Stems tufted, 8 to 10 ft high, round, quite erect, up to 1 in. diameter, dark olive green, at first covered with a waxy bloom; joints often 8 to 10 in. apart; central pipe large. Branches erect, forming dense clusters at each joint. Leaves mostly erect, dark green above, rather glaucous beneath, glabrous on the surfaces, but with numerous bristle-like teeth on one margin and a few scattered ones on the other; the longest are 8 to 9 in. long, the broadest 3⁄4 to 1 in. wide, the average width from 1⁄4 to 5⁄8 in., tapered at the base, the apex long, tail-like. Secondary veins four to six each side the midrib.
Native of Hong Kong; introduced to Japan and thence to Europe. It is doubtful whether the plant in cultivation is the same species as the Hong Kong bamboo. Munro described a narrow-leaved plant which may be the same as a bamboo which flowered on the Island in 1897 and again in 1909; its spikelets are, however, slightly different from those of the plants of British gardens, which flowered in 1910 and 1911. Until the group of bamboos comprising this species, A. simonii, A. chino and A. graminea, has been investigated the cultivated plant is best left under A. hindsii.
It is one of the least elegant of bamboos, similar in foliage to A. graminea, but less copiously leafy and with larger leaves. The stems and leaves are also stouter and darker green, the habit is less dense, and the plants do not ‘run’ so rapidly.