Some Neat Bamboo Facts

Bamboo facts are as numerous and exotic as the plant itself.Did you know a single bamboo plant type can flower, that is they actually produce flower buds, as little as once every 120 years? 

This obviously, makes identification by flowering very difficult. 

Fortunately, bamboo enthusiasts have watched bamboo for generations and kept precise records that we all benefit from. 

A bamboo plant FAQ for you.  What type of bamboo do I have? 

This is a loaded question.  Bamboo is notoriously hard to identify because of its chameleon characteristics, sometime mimicking other plants. 

It is known that there are about 2,000 different species generally 1200 or so can be found relatively easily. That’s just one of the thousands of interesting facts about bamboo.  Bamboo types are divided into two main categories. 

Category one is the clumping bamboos and category two is the running bamboos. The American bamboo society has done wonders with identifying bamboo types in the Americas. 

Clumping bamboo has a very short root structure, do not grow more than few inches a year and will generally form clumps, it has a rather bushy-like appearance. 

The clumps slowly get bigger as new culms (stalks) grow annually. As a general rule, about 2-12 feet of growing space is needed to reach a full-grown height for the plant.  

Clumping bamboo makes excellent screen-type plants because of their density. 

They are the slower growing bamboo plant type.

Clumpers are not very resistant to the cold and prefer warmer temperatures.

The second is the more traditional of the bamboo types. 

When we think of a bamboo forest, we are generally envisioning running bamboo. 

Running bamboo has the characteristic of the rhizome, the horizontal root, these can go very far away from the parent (starter) plant. 

Runners grow super-fast in their growing season. 

What's most remarkable is that running bamboo of 65 to 80 foot tall have reached that height in one growing season, which has been as short as two months!  

Another bamboo fact about them is they are more resistant to the cold.  

In fact, they are the heartier of the two types in relation to cold weather. 

 

More bamboo fun facts!

Bamboo is not a tree or scrub it is actually a grass.

The needle in Alexander Graham Bell's first phonograph was made of bamboo.

Bamboo is the fastest growing plant on earth, the fastest growing bamboo ever documented was 47.6 inches in a 24 hours.

Bamboo has some amazing properties that have been used by mankind over the ages. Bamboo has varied uses from reinforcement of concrete buildings in place of steel, to meals for millions of people in the orient.

Mature bamboo has tensile strength greater than steel, its shoots are tender enough to eat. Bamboo is used in scaffolding architecture for high rise buildings across the Far East, and is used to make strong light plywood boards that are used in every construction application you can imagine.  

Bamboo can be used to cook in, eat off of, actually eat, sit on, walk on, ride on, and live under.  It is truly the most versatile plant in nature!