lacrima-deae, is native to Hunan, Henan, Jiangxi and Zhejiang, and especially the Jiuyi Mountains areas of China.

The stems of the spotted bamboos are esteemed and cost-effective for making the handles of Chinese brushes, used for calligraphy and painting.

Examples of brushes from the eighth century CE (corresponding to the Tang dynasty, in China) are preserved in the Shōsōin, in Japan; in fact, the prestige value of this type of bamboo was evidently so high at the time that among the Shōsōin treasures are preserved objects made out of some sort of imitation spotted bamboo.

[2] Legend has it that when Emperor Shun died suddenly during a trip to Cangwu, the tears of his two concubines, (the Xiang River goddesses Ehuang (娥皇) and Nüying (女英)) dropped onto surrounding bamboo and stained it forever.

The term "mottled bamboo" is also used to describe online discussion board moderators in Mainland China, because when the word for moderator (版主) is entered using the keyboard in Pinyin, the word for mottled bamboo (斑竹) appears as the first option, as they sound very similar.