I'm thinking it's one of the Ph. nigra cultivars. Can you tell me if the culms end up completely black, or not? And the pictures you provided are of dead culms that have partially turned tan, correct?

Thanks Kudzu...I haven't seen very many of the old culms; just half a dozen pieces that were left behind. I do know that the new culms are green and that the old ones, as you can see, have black speckling- a couple of them have sections that were totally black- and that happened on one side, as if it might have been the sunny side. The only thing making me question 'nigra' at all is the unusual 'roundedness' of the culms- the nodes aren't prominent, neither are the sulcus grooves. But what else could it be, right? It definitely has the two-branches-per-node and the typical Phyllostachy leaf shape...

I agree that the nodes are a little less prominent than I'm used to with Ph. nigra...that's why I was thinking one of the nigra cultivars. The speckling is a feature that I've seen on dead, dried nigra culms as the black color gets bleached out. There are a couple of tropical cultivars that turn black, but I doubt that they would grow there. A key question is whether the mature, live culms turn totally black, or only partially. If only partially, my first guess would be Ph. nigra 'Boryana,' which gets a mottled., spotted appearance as it ages. If the mature culms turn pretty much black over time, it's one of the other Ph. nigras. I know that you don't have a full, mature grove to look at, but take a look at the link below and examine the photos for the various Ph. nigra varieties and see what you think. Go to the dropdown box toward the bottom of the linked page and checkout the various nigras. Then let me know what you think.

Here is a link that might be useful: BambooWeb

Can you take a closeup picture of the culms that shows the branches and the sulcus?

And, on the off chance that this is something I don't have in my collection, I might be interested in getting a piece of this. Please email me and let me know whether you'd be willing to do this. (I'd dig it myself if I were closer, but I'm in the Pacific NW.) Of course, I'd reimburse you, or send you something interesting as a trade. You can get to my email by clicking on my user name.