Doing a search, I came upon a site that claims that they are the same thing. Not sure if this is true or not, the common name is Moso, but it's also called mitis as well (scroll down to p edulis). http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/find_lat?LAT=Phyllostachys&CAN=fam

LOL! I ordered what I thought was a P nigra henon and whatever I ended up getting is some sort of yellow bamboo. I have nooo idea what it is either.

Here is something called p mitris 'pigskin' scroll down to it, maybe that is what you have? All this latin is confusing me! ;>
http://www.lewisbamboo.com/Giant_Bamboo.html

Here is a pic of the moso from another site. http://www.jmbamboo.com/phpubescens.htm

Thanks for the links. I guess they are the same and some one added the "gigante" to the label to keep me happy! Seems i will need some global warming to keep this type of bamboo happy in ireland.

R