That's Bamboo? Wow!

Bamboo--eco-wonder of the world

What is stronger than hardwood, can grow up to 4 feet a day, and survived the bombing of Hirsohima? That's bamboo.

But that's not all. Bamboo gives us clean air to breathe, consumes carbon dioxide and returns 35 percent more oxygen to the atmosphere than trees.

Wait! There's more! Because of its rapid growth and root structure, it can, in a very short time, reclaim land destroyed by overgrazing and over-building and clean the soil of toxins.

Plus, it grows so fast, that it can be harvested sustainably for thousands of products from chop sticks to mansions. What's not to love about bamboo?

 

Bamboo garden, downtown San Francisco
Image copyright L Kathryn Grace - All rights reserved

Where doesn't bamboo grow?

Like many grasses, bamboo is highly adaptable and can naturalize almost anywhere. Native to all continents except Europe and Antarctica, bamboo species grow in a variety of climates from tropical to frigid.

Gilberto Cortes, Regional Director of Bamboo in the Americas, estimates more than 1200 species worldwide, about 450 of them in the Americas. Only one species, Arundinaria gigantea, commonly known as Cane Brake or Cane Reed, is native to the United States.

Image: Bambusa textilis
Copyright L Kathryn Grace - All rights reserved

Bamboo--the gardener's delight

Gardeners love bamboo for its texture, color, gracefulness, and versatility. You can solve dozens of problems with the right bamboo. Use it as a screen to hide an unsightly fence, a backdrop to set off a variegated border, or a sponge to sop up water in a sandy, wet area.

In this downtown San Francisco plaza, 40-foot bamboos screen a brick wall, set the tone for lacy Japanese maples (in pots), cleanse and cool the air, and create an island of calm--one might say sacred space--in the middle of a bustling city.

Image copyright L Kathryn Grace - All rights reserved.

More gardens and gardener's tips to come

From time to time, this lens will feature gardening tips and landscaping how-tos. Here you can find links to good books like the one below for finding hardy bamboo that winters well in cold climates and suits your particular landscaping needs.

Here, too, you can find tools, the innovative and the traditional, some used for thousands of years, as well as beautiful accessories for your garden and patio.

Image copyright L Kathryn Grace - All rights reserved.

Take a virtual tour of the bamboo garden at Foothill College

Los Altos, CA

This graceful two-acre garden began in 1989, with just six black bamboo plants. In 2004, when Foothill College last updated their bamboo garden page the garden had grown to 70 species of bamboo plants. If you are considering planting bamboo in a temperate clime, look here for comprehensive information about growing a wide variety of bamboo plants, from dwarfs to giants, and how they can be used ornamentally as well as functionally.

A nod to the folks at Bamboo Headquarters

Stake and rake with bamboo garden tools

Highly regenerative, bamboo is the ideal raw material for manufactured goods

Not only is bamboo a beautiful garden feature, it makes superb garden accessories and tools as well. Below are just two of many ways you can use bamboo tools in your garden.

 

Gardener using bamboo stakes
A morgueFile free photo

Food bamboo

Yes, bamboo has been a food staple for millenia

Bamboo shoots have been used in cooking in China, Japan and other Asian countries for thousands of years. Try this recipe using fresh bamboo sprouts. Recipe page includes lovely photographs of the finished dish. Want the very freshest? Learn how to grow, harvest and prepare your own bamboo shoots. It's easier than you might think.

 

Image courtesy UF/IFAS
document #HS548,
copyright 1994, 2003

Before you buy a bamboo product

Make sure the bamboo was grown on sustainable plantations

Sustainable as it is, using bamboo does not mean we are off the hook environmentally. Bamboo is the major food for endangered pandas, bamboo lemurs, and mountain gorillas, whose habitat shrinks daily.

Civilization increasingly encroaches on bamboo forests and plantations. Make sure the bamboo products you purchase are from sustainable plantations that do not destroy habitat or endanger other species.

Save the panda, the lemur and the mountain gorilla! Buy responsibly.

Image copyright C. Bassett
www.asianflora.com
Used with permission

Adopt a panda through World Wildlife Federation (WWF)

For over four decades the Panda logo has been a recognizable symbol of WWF and its efforts in wildlife and habitat conservation. These shy, lovable creatures are found only in remote areas of the Upper Yangtze forests, where they feed on bamboo shoots. A newborn cub is about the size of a stick of butter, weighs only three to five ounces, and is totally dependent upon its mother for the first few months of life.

Image and text courtesy
WWF Adopt a Panda

The bamboo highrise

Building highrises with bamboo scaffolding

If you keep up with trends, you've seen items made of bamboo wherever you shop. You may already own a buttery-almond-colored cutting board. Maybe you own a tee-shirt or a pair of bamboo socks. But did you know that in some countries, engineers use this strong material for the scaffolding when building highrises?

 

Image courtesy Bamboo Village

One billion people live in real bamboo houses

Bamboo buildings are both durable and functional

Buy sustainably - Give sustainably all year long

It is easy to find bamboo treasures for the home

Rat famine

Bamboo fruits attract hordes of rats in India

Bamboo plants bloom rarely, and when they do, the entire species usually blooms at the same time and dies, worldwide. Many species bloom just once a century, or less. Some species bloom as frequently as every 48-49 years.

Right now, in India, rats are gobbling up the high protein fruits of vast forests of a bamboo species that blooms every 48 years. The rich diet kicks the rats' reproductive cycle into high gear and they multiply like Tribbles.

Once they've consumed the last of the bamboo fruit, their highly inflated population begins gorging on crops, devouring every living plant in sight. People die of starvation. This is called the rat famine.

Bamboo, which can live to be 120 years old, dies upon flowering. Entire forests can vanish in a season. Thankfully, bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants on earth. Some species can grow up to 4 feet a day, so once the seeds germinate, a new forest crops up pretty fast.

Image courtesy Free Nature Pictures

How green is your bamboo?

WHERE IT'S HARVESTED AND HOW IT'S PROCESSED MATTER

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Incredulous delight ...

LENS OF THE DAY JULY 10, 2007

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