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What's So Special About Bamboo?

Well, bamboo is possibly the most versatile plant on the planet. You can eat it. You can build a bamboo fence or install a bamboo floor. You can use bamboo fly rods to fish, a bamboo steamer to cook, and a bamboo flute to make music. You can even dry off with a bamboo towel! This list only scratches the surface of the many uses of Bamboo.

Bamboo is so much more than a resource as well. All you have to do is spend a few minutes in a fresh bamboo nursery or lounging by a trickling bamboo fountain and you will know it is also enchanted. Its magical properties are so evident people call a person who has been mesmerized by sound or words bamboozled!

You may already know that bamboo is a grass, but it is a very special type of grass. Unlike other grasses, it has a predetermined form and size. Most grasses grow when resources are available to fuel that growth. If more resources are present, the grass grows faster and gets bigger. If resources become scarce, the grass stops growing, perhaps losing leaves, only to re-grow more leaves when the resources return.

Each bamboo stalk or 'culm', however, sprouts from the root system already knowing exactly how many branches it will have, how many leaves will grow on each branch, and even the diameter of the stalk. A bamboo stalk will never grow more leaves, nor get bigger or smaller than it started out to become. Also, once a bamboo root is producing stalks at a particular size, most of the stalks coming from that root will be at that size or larger. Because of these special characteristics, bamboo is an ideal sustainable and renewable resource. You can clear-cut a bamboo field and within months the field is grown back. Not just grown back, but producing stalks the same size or larger than the stalks you cut down.

Some varieties renew at the most prolific growth rates known, as much as three feet a day.

What else is true about Bamboo?

• It is stronger than aluminum.
• It is more durable than oak.
• It is more flexible than steel.
• It releases 35% more oxygen than timber.
• It is the fastest growing plant on the planet.
• It is the favorite food of panda bears.

Bamboo shoots are a food staple in Asian cuisine and can even be turned into a dry flour to make cake and cookies. Various forms of bamboo have been used for centuries in Ayurvedic medicine and in acupuncture treatments.

Aside from its obvious use as a renewable resource, bamboo is graceful and beautiful to look at. Bamboo has been used for thousands of years as a decorative item in Asian art and architecture. The ancient Asian system of design and placement known as Feng Shui suggests many auspicious uses for indoor bamboo plants. Even the lucky bamboo plant and heavenly bamboo derive their names from the revered bamboo, even though they are not bamboo at all.

There are over 1500 varieties of bamboo ranging in size from dwarfs just a few inches tall, to giants of over 90 feet in height. There are clumpers that grow in a tight space and runners that spread their roots as far and as fast as possible. There are varieties for most climates from tropical heat to freezing snow. Even the color of bamboo spans the spectrum; from yellow to green, black to blue, and red to purple.

Bamboo, with its astounding variety and wealth of uses, truly stands out in the plant kingdom as royalty. Enchanted… magical… Bamboo!