Common Name: golden bamboo
Family: Poaceae
Common Synonyms: none
USDA Hardiness Zone: 6a-10b
Growth Habit: Bamboo
Origin: Southern China
FISC Category: 2
FDACS Listed Noxious Weed: No
Introduction Date: pre-1870
IFAS Assessment:
Perennial rhizomatous bamboo to 10 m tall with stiff erect stems to 6 cm in diameter, green turning yellowish to brown in maturity. Branches form at nodes, which have a swollen band beneath them. Lower stem crowded with nodes while the upper stem with widely spaced nodes up to 20 cm apart. Stems flattened or grooved on one side above each node. Stem leaf sheaths glabrous, deciduous, margins entire, with two tufts of hairs where sheath intersects the blade. Leaves 1-5 per twig, lanceolate, glabrous above, pubescent along lower midrib, 12 cm long and 2 cm wide. Spikelets sessile, at the ends of leaf branches, seldom flowering in Florida, but a mass flowering event takes place every 50 years or so.
Hardwood forest, pine flatwoods, sinkholes, floodplains
The most widely cultivated species of bamboo in the US. Fast growing, forming monocultural stands. Similar to the native giant cane (Arundinaria gigantea), which lacks the flattened area above each node.
NA
Dave's Garden. 2014. PlantFiles: Golden bamboo, Phyllostachys aurea. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/91940/. Accessed on June 20, 2014.
Langeland, K.A., H.M. Cherry, C.M. McCormick, K.C. Burks. 2008. Identification and Biology of Non-Native Plants in Florida's Natural Areas-Second Edition. IFAS Publication SP 257. University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.