Bamboo is truly one of the earth's most remarkable resources. Amongst the
fastest growing plants on earth, bamboo is classified botanically a grass.
With over a thousand documented species (the exact number is unknown),
bamboo has a long history in the Asia regions and has a special place in
the cultures and everyday lives of millions of people around the world.
Renowned for its durability, resistance to pests, incredible
self-propagating capacity and long admired for its elegance and beauty,
bamboo has been and continues to be used on a daily basis in an almost
unbelievable diverse range of applications. From food to eating and cooking
utensils, decoration to construction, bamboo has inspired poets and tested
the skills of artists attempting capture its charm and elegance.
The bamboo used in Grasswood Bamboo Flooring is known as
Mao-Zhu in China, Moso in Japan and is botanically referred to as
Phyllostachys pubescens. This species of bamboo is preferred
for the manufacture of floor material due to it strength, hardness,
evenness of colour and its remarkable growth rate (up to a metre a
day in its most vigourous growth period). While it can grow up to
20 metres tall, our bamboo is cut at around two metres which takes between
just five and seven years depending on climatic conditions. The reason the
farmers cut at this stage is that it has been found that this is when the
cell structures of the canes (known as culms) reach their greatest strength
and are most stable. After this time the cell structure slowly weakens.
Mao-Zhu bamboo is a "running" species meaning that it sends out "runners"
(known as rhizomes) horizontally under the ground and sends up the shoots
that become the canes (known as culms). Each rhizome can run over a
hundred metres and established groves can consist of kilometres of interwoven
rhizomes that bind the soil so well that it can reduce or even prevent erosion.
A single Mao-Zhu bamboo plant (known as a clump) can produce up
to 30 kilometres of useable pole in its lifetime.
Some interesting bamboo facts:
- A sixty foot tree cut for market takes 60 years to replace. A sixty foot
bamboo cut for market takes 59 days to replace.
- Over one billion people in the world live in bamboo houses.
- The world trade in bamboo and rattan is currently estimated at 5 billion
US dollars every year.
- Thomas Edison's first successful incandescent lamp (light bulb) used a
filament made of carbonised bamboo. It was patented in 1880. This light bulb
still burns today in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC.
- Thomas Edison also used bamboo as rebar for the reinforcement of his swimming
pool. To this day, the pool has never leaked.
- Alexander Graham Bell used bamboo for the first phonograph needle.
- Bamboo survived the atomic bomb at Hiroshima and provided the first re-greening
after the blast in 1945.
- With a tensile strength superior to mild steel (withstands up to 52,000
pounds of pressure psi) and a weight-to-strength ratio surpassing that of
graphite, bamboo is the strongest growing woody plant on earth. There is a
suspension bridge in China 250 yards long, 9 foot wide and rests entirely on
bamboo cables fastened over the water. It doesn't have a single nail or piece of
iron in it. Used in ladders, scaffolding and construction, bamboo is twice as
stable as oak, walnut and teak.
- Bamboo is the fastest growing plant on this planet and provides the best
canopy for the greening of degraded lands. (Some species of Bamboo grow as much
as 4 feet a day). It's stands release 35% more oxygen than equivalent stands of
trees. Bamboo can also lower light intensity and protects against ultraviolet rays.
- Bamboo has thousands of uses including aeroplane "skins", aphrodisiacs,
blinds, brushes, crafts, desalination filters, diesel fuel, fly fishing poles,
flooring, food, furniture, medicine, musical instruments, ornaments, paper,
rope, scaffolding, umbrellas, walking sticks, wind chimes and many, many, more.
- Bamboo is harvested and replenished with no impact to the environment. It can be
selectively harvested annually and is capable of complete regeneration without
need to replant. Bamboo is an enduring natural resource and provides income, food,
and housing to over 2.2 billion people.
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The ENVIRONMENTAL BAMBOO FOUNDATION asks:
WHY BAMBOO? ... HERE'S WHY ...
DEFORESTATION and increased CO2 emissions threaten the earth's biodiversity and the
very air we breathe...
Perhaps the environmental crisis' at hand have not yet touched your life, but the
time is shortly to come. Recent NASA reports of a 60% loss of ozone over the arctic
provide an explanation for increased severity in the world's weather patterns which
has only begun to affect us whether directly or indirectly. The social, political
and economic implications are difficult to imagine as our ozone layer continues to
thin, forests disappear and desertisation is occurring at an alarming rate.
BAMBOO HAS AN IMPORTANT ROLE TO PLAY...
The earth desperately needs the attention and action of us all or our children's
children will surely not have a world fit to live in. There is no one solution but
amazingly, the simple bamboo plant can make a dramatic positive impact in many
areas. It is our goal to inform and raise awareness about "Bamboo, People
and the Environment" and provide the tools and information to then respond
in one's own way in their own world. Every action counts, every person counts...
ENDURING THROUGH TIME...
Thomas Edison successfully used a carbonised bamboo filament in his experiment
with the first light bulb. This light bulb still burns today in the Smithsonian
Museum in Washington DC. He also used a bamboo as rebar for the reinforcement of
his swimming pool. To this day, the pool has never leaked. An unrivalled utility,
(One resource book lists over 5,000 uses including paper, scaffolding, diesel
fuel, aeroplane "skins", desalination filters, aphrodisiacs, musical
instruments, medicine, food and was Alexander Graham Bell's first phonograph needle
SURVIVING THROUGH HARDSHIP...
Amidst death and destruction, bamboo survived the Hiroshima atomic blast closer to
ground zero than any other living thing and provided the first re-greening in
Hiroshima after the blast in 1945.
GROWING WITH STRENGTH AND SPEED...
With a tensile strength superior to mild steel (withstands up to 52,000 pounds of
pressure psi) and a weight-to-strength ratio surpassing that of graphite, bamboo
is the strongest growing woody plant on earth with one of the widest ranging
habitats of more than 1500 species thriving in diverse terrain from sea level
to 12,000 feet on every continent but the poles. It also grows the fastest:
clocked shooting skyward at 2 inches an hour. Some species grow one and a half metres
a day.
BAMBOO PROTECTS THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE AIR WE BREATHE...
Bamboo is the fastest growing canopy for the regreening of degraded lands, and
it's stands release 35% more oxygen than equivalent stands of trees. Some bamboo
even sequester up to 12 tons of carbon dioxide from the air per hectare. Bamboo
can also lower light intensity and protects against ultraviolet rays. Traditional
belief holds that being in a bamboo grove - the favourite dwelling place of Buddha
- restores calmness to emotions and stimulates creativity.
Carbon Sequestration Information
Net production and carbon cycling in a bamboo Phyllostachys pubescens stand.
AU: Isagi-Y; Kawahara-T; Kamo-K; Ito-H
AD: Kansai Research Centre, Forestry and Forest Products Research
Institute, Momoyama, Fushimi, Kyoto 612, Japan.
SO: Plant-Ecology. 1997, 130: 1, 41-52; 48 ref.
PY: 1997
LA: English
AB: Phyllostachys pubescens is one of the largest bamboo species with a
leptomorphic (a type of rhizomatous system with solitary culms scattered rather
evenly) root system in the world. The species originates in China and has been
naturalised in neighbouring countries. It was introduced in 1746 into Japan
because of the economic value of the young sprouts and culm woods. It escaped
from the planted areas and expanded by invading the native vegetation. In order
to clarify the basic ecological characteristics of the species, carbon fixation
and cycling were determined in a stand of Phyllostachys pubescens in Kyoto
Prefecture. The standing culm density and average DBH (diameter at breast height)
in 1991 were 7,100 ha-1 and 11.3 cm, respectively. The aboveground bio-mass was
116.5 t ha-1 for culms, 15.5 t ha-1 for branches, 5.9 t ha-1 for leaves and
137.9 t ha-1 in total. The total aboveground biomass is one of the largest among
the world's bamboo communities. The biomass of rhizomes and fine roots was 16.7
t ha-1 and 27.9 t ha-1, respectively. Annual soil respiration was 52.3 t CO2 ha-1,
the highest among those determined in Japan. The gross annual production was
high, at 32.8 t C ha-1, and allocation of annual gross production to the root
system was also high at 11 t C ha-1 - 34% of gross production, and 46% of
the fluxes out of the leaves. This pattern of allocation results in a net annual
above ground production of 18.1 t ha-1, which is within the average range of
productivity of forests under similar climatic conditions. The correspondence
of the allocation pattern of the species with its successful range expansion is
discussed.
DE: asexual-reproduction; biological-production; biomass-production; carbon-cycle;
bamboos-; nutrients-; distribution-; carbon-; photosynthesis-; stand-characteristics;
biomass-; cycling
AN: 950608033
TI: Carbon stock and cycling in a bamboo Phyllostachys bambusoides stand.
AU: Isagi-Y
AD: Laboratory of Silviculture, Kansai Research Centre, Forestry
and Forest Products Research Institute, Kyoto 612, Japan.
SO: Ecological-Research. 1994, 9: 1, 47-55; 42 ref.
PY: 1994
LA: English
AB: Gross production and carbon cycling in a Phyllostachys bambusoides stand
in Kyoto Prefecture, central Japan, were determined, and then a compartment model
showing the carbon stock and cycling within the ecosystem was developed. Above ground
carbon stock was 52.3 t/ha, increasing at an annual rate of 3.6 t/ha. Below ground
carbon stock was 20.8 t/ha in the root system and 92.0 t/ha in the soil. Above ground
annual net C production was 11.2 t/ha. Below ground annual net C production was
crudely estimated at 4.5 t/ha. Gross annual production was estimated at 41.8 t/ha
by summing the amount of outflow to the environment and the increment in biomass.
Leaves consumed 13.7 t C/ha per year by respiration; the rest (41.8 - 13.7 = 28.1 t
C/ha per year) was surplus production of leaves and flowed into the other compartments.
Annual amounts of construction and maintenance respiration of above ground compartments
were 3.4 and 18.5 t/ha, respectively. The annual amount of soil respiration was 11.2 t/ha.
Soil respiration levels of 4.3 and 3.1 t C/ha per year were estimated for the flow
of root respiration and root detritus. The proportion of net to gross production was
37%, which fell within the range of young and mature forests. A shorter life span of
culms, compared to tree trunks, resulted in smaller biomass accumulation ratio
(biomass/net production) in the ecosystem, of 4.66.
DE: bamboos-; respiration-; biomass-; carbon-; models-; carbon-
cycle; biomass-production; simulation-; cycling-
EROSION CONTROL ...
A peerless erosion control agent, it's net-like root system creates an effective
mechanism for watershed protection, stitching the soil together along fragile
riverbanks, deforested areas, and in places prone to earthquakes and mud-slides.
Because of their wide-spreading root system, uniquely shaped leaves, and dense
litter on the forest floor, the sum of stem flow rate and canopy intercept of
bamboo is 25% which means that bamboo greatly reduces rain run off, preventing
massive soil erosion and keeping up to twice as much water in the watershed.
Bamboo is a pioneering plant and can be grown in soil damaged by overgrazing
and poor agricultural techniques. Unlike most timber trees, proper harvesting
does not kill the bamboo plant so topsoil is held in place.
SAVING RAINFORESTS ...
Bamboo is one of the strongest building materials. Bamboo's tensile strength is
28,000 pounds per square inch versus 23,000 pounds per square inch for steel.
In the tropics, it is possible to plant and "grow your own home"; in Costa Rica,
1,000 houses of bamboo are built annually with material coming only from a 60
hectare bamboo plantation. If an equivalent project used timber, it would require
500 hectares of our diminishing tropical rainforests. Using bamboo to replace
timber saves the rainforests. With a 10-30% annual increase in biomass versus
2 to 5% for trees, bamboo creates greater yields of raw material for use. One
clump can produce 200 poles in the three to five years. Bamboo generates a crop
every year.
A RENEWABLE RESOURCE ...
Bamboo is a high-yield renewable resource: "Ply boo" is now being
used for wall panelling and floor tiles; bamboo pulp for paper-making; briquettes
for fuel, raw material for housing construction; and rebar for reinforced
concrete beams. There are 1,500 species of bamboo on the earth. This diversity
makes bamboo adaptable to many environments. It can be harvested in 3-5 years
versus 10-20 years for most softwoods. Bamboo tolerates extremes of precipitation
from 30~250 inches of annual rainfall.
HOUSING ...
Bamboo related industries already provide income, food, and housing to over
2.2 billion people world wide. There is a 3-5 year return on investment for a new
bamboo plantation versus 8-10 years for rattan. The governments of India and
China, with 15 million hectares of bamboo reserves collectively, are poised to
focus attention on the economic factors of bamboo and its protection. In Limon,
Costa Rica, only bamboo houses from the national Bamboo Project stood after
their violent earthquake in 1992. Flexible and lightweight, bamboo enables
structures to "dance" in earthquakes.
FOOD ...
Bamboo shoots provide nutrition for millions of people world wide. In Japan,
the antioxidant properties of pulverised bamboo skin can prevent bacterial growth, and
it is used as a natural food preservative. Bamboo litter makes fodder for animals and
food for fish. Taiwan alone consumes 80,000 tons of bamboo shoots annually,
constituting a $50 million industry.
Bamboo leaves are normally utilised as fodder during scarcity. Young bamboo leaves
and twigs are a favourite meal for elephants and the Panda. D.strictus leaves have
(on dry matter basis) crude protein, 15.09; crude fiber, 23.15; ether extract, 1.43;
ash, 18.03; phosphorus, 170: and calcium, 1550 mg/100g respectively. Their digestible
crude protein and total digestible nutrient contents are 93.34% and 48.9% respectively.
The leaves of B.arundinacea have crude protein, 18.64; crude fibre, 24.1; ether extract 4.1;
N- free extract, 41.4; ash, 11.75%; phosphorus, 170 mg: and calcium, 56mg/100g
respectively. The digestible crude protein and total digestible nutrient contents
are 13.5% and 46.5% respectively. The protein contained methionine and lysine.
Copper and zinc are also found. The nutrient contents differed significantly in
samples collected from high altitudes.
For B.vulgaris the figures are crude protein, 10.1; crude fibre, 21.7; ether extract,
2.5; and ash, 21.3%; phosphorus, 86; iron, 13.4; vitamin B1, 0.1; vitamin B2, 2.54, and
carotene, 12.3mg/100g respectively. The meal is used as a supplement to vitamin A
deficient diets for chicks.
AN ANCIENT MEDICINE ...
Bamboo has for centuries been used in Ayurvedic medicine and Chinese herbal medicine.
Tabasheer, the powdered, hardened secretion from bamboo is used internally to treat
asthma, coughs and can be used as an aphrodisiac. In China, ingredients from the
root of the black bamboo help treat kidney disease. Roots and leaves have also
been used to treat venereal disease and cancer. Sap is said to reduce fever,
and ash will cure prickly heat. A village in Indonesia reports that the water
form within the culm is used to treat broken bones effectively and that the
tabasheer is used to promote fertility in their cows. Current research points
to bamboo's potential in a number of medicinal uses.
A LANDSCAPE DESIGN ELEMENT & WASTE WATER SYSTEM ...
Bamboo is an exquisite component of landscape design. For the human environment
bamboo provides shade, wind break, acoustical barriers, and aesthetic beauty.
"The Bamboo Forest is an ecological wastewater utilisation system that
essentially grows away, waste, producing a marketable crop in the process.
Comprised of a sub-surface evaporation-transpiration bed planted with bamboo
and other rapid-growing, non-invasive plants, the system is engineered to
provide an aerobic rhizosphere (the home of living organisms in the root
system), in which damaging polluting components are transformed into plant
nutrients"
INTEGRALLY INVOLVED IN CULTURE AND THE ARTS ...
Bamboo is a mystical plant: a symbol of strength, flexibility, tenacity, and
endurance. Throughout Asia, bamboo has for centuries been integral to religious
ceremonies, art, music, and daily life. It can be found in the paper, the brush,
and the inspiration for poems and paintings. Some of the earliest historical
records from the 2nd century BC were written on green bamboo strips.
As evidenced by all of the above qualities, bamboo rightfully deserves it's
nickname, "the miracle plant."
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