It's a yellow runner, nearly all golden but every once in a while there is a very thin stripe of green.

P. vivax Aureocaulis.......

Laz

Thanks Lazlo! Some other guesses were Ph. aureasulcata 'Aureocaulis' and Ph. bambsoides 'Allgold.' Can you tell me what determined your answer?

A bit of a guess iggy mate ....

But it looks to have the smoothness of culm common to the vivax - as opposed to the aureasulcatas which tend to be a little rougher. The later pics look very similar to both of mine - although the original pic is a little devoid of the green stripes.

Lovely looking plant though regardless ...


Laz

Thanks Lazlo It is very smooth. And there are hardly any green stripes at all. I didn't notice them nor did my husband, for over 6 months. There are maybe 8 total on three pretty big plants.

Do you have any photos of the shoots when they are about 6" tall or so?

That should help.

_________________
Alan.
My blog: It's not work, it's gardening!

I do... do you need them from the side or the top? What are you looking for....so I know what to photograph

culm sheathes at about 6-8 ins .... vivax are quite distinctive ... sort of a bit spotty! ....


Laz

Lazlo-
Ph. vivax 'Aurocaulis' seems like a good guess, but I'm not totally comfortable with that based on these observations:

-My Ph. vivax 'Aureocaulis' does not have variegated leaves, and my culms have more striping than shown in those photos

-The first photo above seems to have some compressed nodes, which I have not observed with my Ph. vivax 'Aureocaulis'

-Since the culm is smooth that rules out Ph. a. 'Aureocaulis'

For those reasons, I'm inclined toward Ph. b. 'Allgold'...but I've been wrong before!

I'm also inclined toward a bambusoides due to the thickness of the branches in comparision to the culm. I have not observed variegated leaves on Ph. v. aureocaulis.

_________________
David Arnold
Middle Tennessee Bamboo Farm
USDA zone 6b/7a

I'll throw in my 20 pesos before the pics of the shoots.... Of course, I can rarely tell the difference between vivax and bambusoides shoots! My guess is for the vivax- I have never seen stripes on allgold, and the variegation is more obvious on it.
I could almost swear that the vivax aureocaulis has a very few variegated leaves, I will have to check again though, to be sure either way! At any rate, mine does not have much in the way of green stripes, and the culm colors seen to match the photos of this mystery boo.

So the vivax does have a stripe or two, but they are very faint, and green on green, not white like these photos. My all gold had way more variegation than these photos, but the culm colors in the top photo are closer to the all gold. I don't have any green stripes on the all gold however, leaving me with only one conclusion about the id for this plant- I haven't a clue!

spectabalis?

_________________
Michael Geis
wiener dogs and bamboo
what else is there?

millerlightman-
No, it's not Spectabilis. Spectabilis has a regular and pronounced green stripe in each sulcis.

Spectabalis is also rough to the touch, being an aureosulcata.....

Laz