bamboo plants

bamboo plants

Bamboo, a plant of the family Gramineae, is the longest grass in the world. The length can vary, and some bamboo plants are as short as 30 centimetres, while giant timber bamboo can grow to a height of over 40 metres or 100 feet.

It consists of a hollow culm or stem, with nodes or joints between segments of the stem, and oval leaves. The culm, branches and leaves stay green throughout the bamboo’s life, even during winter.

The bamboo’s lifespan is not very long – only about 20 years, and it flowers once every 7 to 120 years, depending on the species. Interestingly, all the bamboo of a particular species will flower at exactly the same time, regardless of their geographical location.

Being a very versatile plant, bamboo grows in a lot of different climates – it can be found on all the continents except Antarctica. Moreover, it is incredibly flexible; it will bend in strong winds, but it rarely breaks. With a tensile strength superior to mild steel, and a weight-to-strength ratio better than graphite, bamboo is the strongest growing woody plant on Earth. A testament to its durability is the fact that a stand of bamboo plants near ground zero at Hiroshima in 1945 survived the atomic blast and sent up new shoots within days. It is also perhaps the fastest growing plant with some varieties growing at the rate of 5 cm per hour or 1.5 metres a day.

The bamboo plant has a wide variety of uses, ranging from being purely decorative to being an important source of fuel. It is utilised as wood in construction work, furniture, utensils, fibre and paper. Bamboo charcoal makes a good fuel, and because it is three times as porous as wood, and releases more energy. Bamboo shoots are also delicious to eat and the leaves provide fodder for animals like the panda. In ancient Chinese culture it was believed that a gift of living bamboo brought good luck. Thus, a fairly recent use of the bamboo plant is as a popular Feng Shui gift.

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