Bamboo

Giant Timber Bamboo

Bamboos are very useful plants throughout the Old and New World tropics. It has been estimated that they are used by more than half of the world's human population every day. According to A. Lewington (Plants For People, 1990), more than 1000 different products are made from bamboo. Bamboo shoots are edible and are a major component of Asian dishes. Since fresh shoots are more flavorful than canned, bamboo farms have been established in the United States. In Tanzania, "bamboo wine" is made from the fermented juice of the wine bamboo (Oxytenanthera braunii). Although bamboo shoots are tender and weak, they grow very rapidly. In fact, there are records of tropical bamboos growing 100 feet in three months, an astonishing 0.0002 miles per hour! When the shoots leaf out in sunlight they become very strong and woody (lignified). 

Bamboos include over 1,000 species of woody, perennial grasses in more than 100 genera. Most botanists place them in the tribe Bambuseae within the grass family Poaceae, a large family of 10,000 species and at least 600 genera. Grasses range in size from small annuals (Poa annua) to towering, timber bamboo (Dendrocalamus giganteus). This is unquestionably the most important plant family, providing the majority of food for humans and their domesticated animals. The grasses are relatively recent additions to the earth's flora, having evolved only 30 to 40 million years ago, long after the demise of the dinosaurs. Vast grasslands provided food for the rising age of herbivorous mammals which in turn provided the food for a variety of carnivores. Some plants called "bamboo" are not grasses. The popular, indoor "lucky bamboo" grown hydroponically in vases of water is actually Draceana sanderana, a member of the lily family (Liliaceae). It is also placed in the agave family (Agavaceae) and dracena family (Dracenaceae) by some botanists. Heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica) is a cultivated dicotyledonous shrub in the barberry family (Berberidaceae).

my bamboo garden keeps growing and expanding drastically

Some bamboos stems have the same tensile strength as certain types of steel and are used to reinforce concrete. After about ten years the stems begin to deteriorate in humid tropical regions. Bamboo canes are used to make cooking utensils, blow guns, toys and furnitures. 

 

Bamboo pulp is used to make paper, and small, polished stem segments are sometimes used in necklaces.

 

           
Since the bamboo trees in my garden spread very fast, and some have grown for more than 100 feet, I need it to be cut down and I will offer the bamboos to those interested in bamboo productions for free only.