Plants spreading slowly to form large dense clumps. Culms to 4 m tall, to 1.5 cm in diam., pluricaespitose, nodding to pendulous; internodes sulcate above branches, finely ridged, glossy above and below nodes, glaucous and matt with thin white wax elsewhere, wax separating to give irregular light patches; nodes with thin sheath scar; supranodal ridge prominent, branches 3-4 at first. Culm sheaths tough, deciduous, convexly attenuating to narrow apex, vein tessellation visible towards apex, apically symmetrical, with dense brown appressed hairs near base, and more widespread erect hairs at first, especially on broad thickened sheath base; auricles absent; oral setae sparse, scabrous and erect, or absent; ligule arcuate, to 4mm wide, to 1 mm deep, arcuate, densely pubescent, margin fimbriate at first; blade small, narrowly lanceolate, deciduous, reflexed or erect, adaxial scabrous. Leaf sheaths persistent, marginally pubescent, vein tessellation visible towards apex, margins membranous and lightly ciliate at first; ligule very long, to 3 mm, fimbriate at first; auricles absent; oral setae very scarce or absent; blade to 15 cm long, to 1.5 cm wide, tough, dark glossy green above, abaxial lightly tomentose; petiole tomentose. Named after Qingchengshan, a mountain and important Taoist site in Sichuan, China, where it was found.
Similar to B. fargesii but smaller, less erect, and less invasive. Distinguished by the more prominent bristles around the node at first, projecting much more than the hairs on the culm sheath itself, by the leaf sheaths that are initially more hairy toward the edges, and by the culm sheath ligule, which has a longer fringe at first. Culm sheaths and leaf sheaths also both show more tessellation of the veins towards the top. However, the degree of variation within Bashania fargesii has not been properly assessed, and these differences are a matter of degree, rather than the more substantial differences usually found between species.
Bashania qingchengshanensis was described from plants growing at Qingchengshan in Sichuan Province of China. Riedelsheimer (1999, in ABS Newsl. 20(4): 9) reported that plants sent to Kimmei Nursery in Holland by collectors from Shanghai Botanic Garden in 1993, from an unknown location “high in the mountains”, and those sent to Switzerland by collectors from Hangzhou, both as Bashania fangiana, are B. qingchengshanensis.
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