The culm sheaths that cover the young shoots have many distinctive characteristics and this is the means by which many bamboos have been identified. The sheath color, size, shape and some of the delicate parts such as the auricles and ligule are used to distinguish different bamboo. We have only been studing and growing bamboo for around ten years and have not even scratched the surface. There are many books on bamboo, but the one we would recommend is the The Book of Bamboo by David Farrelly. We still use this book alot and have found it to be very informative for bamboos of North America.
Auricles are dark purplish to brown, fringed with coarse, long, wavy oral setae.
Sheaths are pubcsent on the back. The sheath blade stands tall at the top of the culms of a henon shoot. It is flanked at its base with a pair of dusky auricles fringed with lavender bristles.