This was easily my best seller when I had my bamboo nursery. It makes a tall, dense screen and is very cold hardy. The canes are a light green color with a pale, yellow stripe or “groove”. The canes have a very rough feel when you slide your hand up the cane. This is one of the most cold hardy bamboos.

This is a new shoot of P. aureosulcata. Since bamboo only rarely flowers the shoots are a great help in identifying a particular bamboo species. Notice the pale cream and purple colors on this one. Bamboo very rarely flowers which is how most plants are identified. Because of this it’s necessary to use other methods for ID. The new shoots are very distinct and really help with this. The new shoots have distinct colors, patterns and physical features. Along with the shoots many bamboos can be identified by the canes, the leaves, or the look of the grove. With all this it is still sometimes difficult to tell what kind of bamboo you are looking at. This close up shows the distinct oral setae on this Yellow Groove shoot. These are the hairs that are green and crinkly with and beautiful, wine, green, and white stripes.
The canes have a yellow stripe on each internode that alternates from one side to the other.  It can be very distinct on new canes but not easy to see on older canes.  The image below is from a cane that is about 6 months old.Thi