Yellow Groove

Phyllostachys Aureosulcata 'Yellow Groove Bamboo' is a great species for privacy screens. It can get larger in warm climates but makes thick lower growing privacy screen in climate zone 6 and colder. The culms are very erect, making them suitable for planting around paths and roads. 

The culm (cane) sheaths are pale green with creamy streaks. Auricles and oral setae are present on mid culm. Can be absent on lower and upper portions of the culms. A very upright species at maturity.'Yellow Groove Bamboo' is widely used as an ornamental because of the occasional zigzag pattern that occurs in the lower quarter of the culms. The culms also have a rough or sandpaper feel. Less aggressive in cooler climates and the shoots are edible.

We have personally recorded this species at 46 feet and 2.6 inches in diameter in climate zone 7. In climate zone 6 expect the max height to be around 20 feet. At the Denver Zoo, it averages 10 to 12 feet in height by .75 inch diameter after 12 years, and appears that this will be the mature average height at that elevation and climate zone 5. We have customers growing this cold-hardy species in parts of Minnesota, in the Missouri Botanical Gardens, University of Minnesota Arboretum, Iowa, and Nebraska. One of our customers in zone 3b/4a Wisconsin where temperatures have gone to -30  reported his 'yellow groove' dies back in the winter months. It comes back each Spring 6 to 8 feet tall from a 5-year-old planting.