Chinese medicine prickly bamboo shoots have a bitter taste. They are the shoots of the grass family plant Zebu. They have the effects of clearing the intestines, stopping diarrhea, and reducing accumulation. They are mainly used to treat dysentery and indigestion. When is the harvesting season for prickly bamboo shoots?
Picture of prickly bamboo shoots
Prickly bamboo shoots belong to tall bamboo species. The stems are 10-24 meters high and 5-15 centimeters in diameter, with very thin hollow internodes.
The sheaths are densely covered with brown thorns, and the sheath bases on the backside have thorns. The sheath ears are slightly equal on the left and right sides. The sheath tongues have slit hairs along the edges. The sheath leaves are persistent, triangular, and have small brown-black thorns on the front side.
There are 2-3 thorns on the branches, and 6-8 leaves on the twigs. The leaf sheaths are 2.5-5 centimeters long, with several gray, easily shed hairs at the sheath mouth. The leaf blades are lanceolate, 6-20 centimeters long and 6-20 millimeters wide, with a narrow base that tapers into a leaf stalk 1-3 millimeters long. The backside of the leaf blades has short hairs, and there are 4-7 secondary veins, with inconspicuous small lateral veins, and the leaf margins are rough or smooth on one side.
Picture of prickly bamboo shoots
The spikelets are clustered, dense, with bran-like scales at the base, containing 4-12 flowers, yellow-green or light green. The apices of the glumes are pointed, without hairs, and the outer glumes are ovate or lanceolate, without hairs. The inner glumes have 2 ridges, covered with 3 scales, and the edges have long white hairs.
There are 6 stamens, with anthers 4 millimeters long, and the top of the anther connective can be penicilliform. The apex of the ovary is covered with thorns, with 1 style and 3 feathery stigmas.
Prickly bamboo shoots are harvested from May to June and can be used fresh or dried.
Prickly bamboo shoots grow on riverbanks or near villages. They are distributed in South China and Southwest China. They are also cultivated.
