Bamboo Facts

Bamboos are giant, fast-growing grasses with woody stems.
Most bamboos grow in east and southeast Asia and on islands in the Indian and Pacific oceans.
Bamboo stems are called culms. They often form dense thickets that exclude every other plant.
Bamboo culms can reach up to 40 m and grow very fast. Some bamboos grow 1 m every three days.
Most bamboos only flower every 12 years or so. Some flower only 30-60 years. Phyllostachys bambusoides flowers only after 120 years.
Pandas depend on the Phyllostachys bamboo, and after it flowers they lose their source of food.
The flowering of the muli bamboo around the Bay of Bengal every 30-35 years brings disaster as rats multiply to take advantage of the abundance of fruit.
The Chinese have used the hollow stems of bamboo to make flutes since before the Stone Age. The Australian aboriginals use them to make droning pipes called didgeridoos.
Bamboo is an incredibly light, strong material, and between 1904 and 1957 athletes used it for polevaulting. American Cornelius Warmerdam vaulted 4.77 m with a bamboo pole.
Bamboo has long been used to make paper. The Bamboo Annals, written on bamboo, are the oldest written Chinese records, dating from the 8th century BC.

This entry is filed under Interesting Facts.