by admin on Saturday, March 13, 2010 16:15 under Interesting Facts.
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- 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.
