Near Huntsville, Arkansas there is a large grove of bamboo growing
near a creek. Someone I know there got a start of it many years ago
and in turn gave me a start of her bamboo. It is solid green however
in bright sun mine has turned a buttery yellow. There is a white ring
below each node on branches and main culms. Temperature of 3 above
zero was the low this winter and minor leaf burn was the only damage
even on such a young unestablished plant.

Last year a single shoot came up and stayed barely above the ground
for about a month and then suddenly took off growing, about a week
later another one came up and both reached about five feet tall and
2/5 inch diamter. My yellow groove, 'giant black' and golden bamboos
were all nearly done shooting when this one started. This could be
related to the planting site, depth of the initial planting, etc. I
am not sure.

I did get a decent chunk of rhizome with the plant but it only had one
six foot cane barely larger than the two that came up. This year
again I see one single shoot, looking to be larger than any existing
culms, waiting about three inches above the ground.

I can take pictures later but really there is so little to work with
that I am not sure how much benefit they will be in identifying it.

My thought is possibly phyllostachys bissetii based upon the white
ring, green canes that are buttery yellow in full hot sun, and also
good cold hardiness. I was just wondering if these characteristics
could be applied to any other bamboos that are at least dependably
cold hardy (no leaf loss, no culm death) to zero, as I know that the
grove on her property survived a night of 0 (f) with NO damage.

A picture really would help... It definitely sounds like a
Phyllostachys. There are several Ph. species with a prominant white
ring below the nodes. Ph. nuda has the biggest and brightest of these
rings, and is cold hardy to -20 F. However, I am not sure I have ever
seen one turn "buttery yellow" in just one season of sun.

"HumanJHawkins" wrote:

A picture really would help... It definitely sounds like a
Phyllostachys. There are several Ph. species with a prominant white
ring below the nodes. Ph. nuda has the biggest and brightest of these
rings, and is cold hardy to -20 F. However, I am not sure I have ever
seen one turn "buttery yellow" in just one season of sun.

http://vespertinal.com/mecha/bamboo.jpg

http://vespertinal.com/mecha/bamboo2.jpg

http://vespertinal.com/mecha/shoot.jpg

Cool... It definitely is a Phyllostachys, and it isn't a Ph. Nuda. If
the culms are particularly strong, it might be a Ph. Bambusoides. Or,
Ph. Bambusoides 'Holochrysa'.

Here is a pic of the latter of these two:
http://www.mulu.co.uk/images/holochrysa_med.jpg

Even though many pics you see of the non-holochysa variety of Ph.
bambusoides show it to be green, it also turns fairly yellow under the
right conditions.

Take all of this with a grain of salt though... There are a lot of
yellow forms of bamboo. I haven't seen a Ph. bambusoides shoot yet, so
can't compare it to your pictures. Hopefully someone who has one
shooting will chime in to confirm (or deny).