Maturity throws my ID for a loop

[movenosound]

At one point I had assumed that this was aurea, but now that the new culm coloration has shown up with this year's shoots, along with what I assume is a more 'mature' shoot feature, I have to wonder if I was even close. The complete lack of congested nodes always made me curious, but maybe these pictures will be a dead giveaway.





If my observations of the culm color are not evident enough in the first photo then I can add some others that might provide a better detail of what I am seeing.

[David]

It appears that you have a mixed grove/ pot. Ph. aureosulcata aureocaulis and perhaps bissetii. I don't see anything that looks like aurea.

[needmore]

I'm with David on this one - BTW don't be surprised if in your bottom photo, the fat shoot in the foreground and the one behind it to the left with the lower cane exposed both abort.

[rfgpitt]

I've seen the bissetti type white margins although not as pronounced, on aureosulcata. If you look at the last pic @ the nice red looking shoot, it also has the white margins. I'm thinking straight aurosulcata unless I was missing something you pros picked up. Rough sandpaper like culm test should prove...

[movenosound]

Thanks again! Needmore, is it the color of the shoot that leads you to believe that it will abort? I have been pretty fortunate so far, in that the only shoots that have aborted on me were over a month ago, and I believe that they were all due to the last cold snap we had, a night that dipped around 34F. Being that I think that those two are the largest so far, it would be sad to see them go, but I wouldn't loose sleep.

Speaking of white margins, another fellow who is confusing me is this one:

white margins, thinking bissetii? sorry about the blurry shot

At one point I thought that I had the same species as the probably Aureosulcata above, but it is pretty clear that it is something very different.

[needmore]

Yes, I'd say that is bissetii.

Re aborting shoots - the one in the background on the left looks to me like it is shedding the lower culm leaves too soon as I think I can see the tip of the shoot not far above exposed culm - usually means that shoot will abort. The big guy in the foreground looks to me like the leaf blades at the tip of the shoot are too long for a shoot that short so I would suspect that it too will abort. I may be wrong on both!

[movenosound]

The top plant, probably aureosulcata 'spectablis' or 'aureocaulis', did abort some shoots, but mostly from some later discovered escapee shoots, SURPRISE! Also, and especially with that large, mature looking shoot, the culm surface was indeed very rough. So, I guess now the only question is spectablis or aureocaulis? There are small green stripes every now and then. However, it is in full sun and shows no reddening. I have no aureocaulis to compare it to, though I have a few spectablis, which have more green striping evident.

[needmore]

Spectabilis will have green in every sulcus, Aureocaulis will not.