Bamboo

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Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. More than 75 genera and 1,000 species of bamboos have been proposed in botanical literature, but many names are synonymous and thus not considered legitimate. Bamboos are giant, fast-growing grasses that have woody stems. They are distributed in tropical and subtropical to mild temperate regions, with the heaviest concentration and largest number of species in East and Southeast Asia and on islands of the Indian and Pacific oceans. A few species of bamboo belonging to the genus Arundinaria are native to the southern United States, where they form dense canebrakes along riverbanks and in marshy areas.

Bamboo Culms

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The woody, hollow aerial stems or culms of bamboo grow in branching clusters from a thick underground stem (rhizome). The culms often form a dense undergrowth that excludes other plants. Bamboo culms can attain heights ranging from 10 to 15 cm (about 4 to 6 inches) in the smallest species to more than 40 m (about 130 feet) in the largest. Mature bamboos sprout horizontal branches that bear sword-shaped leaves on stalked blades; the leaves on young culms arise directly from the stem. The culms of some species grow quickly (as much as 1 foot [0.3 m] per day).

Ornamental Bamboo

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Bamboo plants are becoming increasingly popular in landscaping, due to their vigorous growth potential and appealing aesthetic. There are multiple purposes of bamboos. Bamboos are highly colored, eye catching kinds and one purpose is appreciated as ornamental plantings. The stripped of their lower branches, the yellow or green culms and grooves sometimes stripe green or yellow depending on the varieties make an impressive visibility that bamboos are ideal in any landscape. Ornamental bamboos are for ground covers used in small clumps, for erosion control, for borders and in rock gardens.

There are many varieties of bamboo suited as ornamental purposes and landscaping. They are: Castillon, Allgold, Leopard Bamboo, Black Bamboo, Temple Bamboo, among others.

Colors of Bamboo (Stems)

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Bamboos with yellow canes are usually yellow throughout their lifespan but can occasionally start off green. Black species usually start with green canes which then turn black, but in established and older plants the young canes will often be black from the start. Other coloured bamboos, such as red, blue, or white, also can change throughout their lifespan. Sometimes the colours are spectacular and vibrant, usually in the young fresh canes, and other times they can change colour as they get older. Striped canes - some species have striped canes on young and new growth that then turns to green, others retain the stripes (striations) throughout the lifespan of the plant.

Purposes of Bamboo

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Bamboos are of notable economic and cultural significance in East Asia and South East Asia where the stems are used extensively in everyday life as building materials and as a highly versatile raw product, and the shoots as a food source. Its bamboo shoots are edible and eaten as vegetables by people in the Philippines. Bamboo shoots are part of the Chinese cuisines. The bamboo stems when become old, like more than two years can be made as walls for houses. They are also used as alternative pole guards to scaffoldings on building constructions.

The pulped fibres of several bamboo species, especially Dendrocalamus strictus and Bambusa arundinacea, are used to make fine-quality paper. The stems are also split up to make buckets and pipes or are used to make furniture, walking sticks, fishing poles, garden stakes, and other utensils. Some species of bamboo are used as ornamentals in landscape gardens. The fine-grained silica produced in the joints of bamboo stems has been used as a medicine in the Orient for centuries under the name tabasheer. East Asian artists, poets, and epicures have long celebrated the beauty and utility of bamboo in paintings and verse.