Pleioblastus auricomus (Mitford) D.C.McClint.
by W.R. Sykes
Small, often forming a dense stand but not clump-forming; rhizomes running extensively. Culm usually 0.5-1.5 m, purple or green, very slender, puberulent when young, erect; internodes terete. Culm-sheath with few oral bristles; sheath-blade ovate, puberulent, ciliolate. Branches 1 at lower or middle nodes and 1-2 at upper nodes. Leaf-sheath finely puberulent. Ligule abbreviated. Oral bristles few and caducous. Leaf-blade usually 10-18 × 1.5-3 cm, narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, finely puberulent especially abaxially, either uniformly green or, more usually, longitudinally striped with pale green, greenish yellow or yellow, some leaves mainly yellow with narrow green streaks.
N.: Auckland; S.: Nelson. Footpaths and garden surrounds, roadsides outside gardens.
Naturalised from Japan.
Although indigenous to Japan it is only known in cultivation there. Flowering has not been reported from N.Z.
Also known in N.Z. as Arundinaria auricoma Mitford, Bambusa viridi-striata Regel, and Pleioblastus viridi-striatus (Regel) Makino.
