A common bamboo of mixed coniferous forest in the western valleys, extending down to 2,300m in moist gulleys. The only bamboo species to occur naturally around Thimphu. Previously included within Yushania microphylla, recent Chinese collections of Tibetan material from the Chumbi Valley have shown it to be a separate species. In areas of clear-felled forest it is reduced to less than 1m by browsing, and also often burning, but the culms can grow up to 3m tall and 1.5cm in diameter, with leaves of up to 10cm, when protected from grazing. This species is similar to Y. microphylla in its hollow rhizome necks. It can be distinguished from other Yushania species and from Sarocalamus racemosus by the slightly
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