A long, scrambling bamboo. Stems are several, climbing by loop, 1.5 to 3 centimeters in diameter at the base, terete smooth and green; the branches are numerous, the slender, somewhat drooping branches forming a tangle mass; the sheath is 10 to 18 centimeters long. Leaves are about 15 to 35 centimeters long, and 3 to 7 centimeters wide, broadly linear or lanceolate. Infrastuscence occurs on leafless branchlets, chiefly terminal, 30 to 90 centimeters long. Fruit is hard, and 1 to 1.25 centimeters long, ellipsoid to subgloose, of deep wine color when fully ripe; black when dry.

Taken internally as vermifuge (young shoots)

Bureau of Plant Industry

The water inside the stem is an eye medicine and also used against scurf.