I tend to treat mine with respect, and have never broken it, but I believe it could break or at least get a bend in the blade. I'm 180 pounds, and apply a bit of force at times, but I've used all kinds of tools for decades and have a good sense of when to stop. I recommend that you do what I do: whe...

dependable- Thanks

dependable- Thanks

dependable- You're starting to soften me up a bit in your view that it could be vivax: in your photo, the proportion of wall thickness to culm diameter is quite similar to the last photo I posted. However, the leaf tips in your photo are much more crinkly than in mine.

This is the wall thickness, so I don’t think it’s vivax:
[attachment=0]1A7EFD70-88EB-42DF-916D-0A2E30A05228.jpeg[/attachment]

I have dulcis, and it's not that. I also have Ph. viridis and it's a deeper green than the mystery bamboo, and the culms of my viridis are nowhere near as large in diameter. Bambusoides may be a possibility.

Brad-
Not vivax... I should’ve mentioned that it has a nice, thick wall, and I have no problem with breakage when we have the occasional snow.

About 10 years ago I was doing a garden exchange and got a chunk of rootball with about a 2' pruned-off culm sticking out of it. The person I got it from did not know the species and only said that it was a fast growing timber bamboo. It's moderately aggressive so I have it surrounded by barrier. It...

David-
Good to hear from you. Sounds like you’ve put some miles on your shovel! I don’t sharpen mine because my soil is so full of rocks that the edge disappears quickly. So I need a little more brute force taking divisions.

Hi, Brad-
I think I've gotten close to that line a couple of times. That must have been quite a division! Have you ever thought of trying to get it rewelded?

Alan_L- That's my approach, too. I'm not going to risk breaking my $200 Bamboo Spade by misusing it as a pry bar.

Brad-
Have you ever compared the wall thicknesses of your dulcis/vivax? The dulcis is significantly thicker.

My dulcis tends to have some curved culms and to lean outward, whereas the unknown bamboo has been putting up rather straight culms. I suppose one of these days I should cut down a culm of the unknown bamboo to see if it is thin-walled like vivax.

And here are some closeups of the leaves. The first one is the unknown and the second one is Ph. dulcis:

Glen-
I don't recall seeing any auricles or oral setae on the culm sheaths, and the culm sheaths have much different coloring than those in the link you provided. Here are some more pictures. The first one is of the unknown bamboo and the second one is my Ph. dulcis: