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Very few plants on the face of the earth match the bamboo for its versatility and character. Bamboo is, all at once, evocative and enchanting while being practical and hearty. In many ways, bamboo may be the perfect plant.
There are more than 70 genera of bamboo divided into about 1,000 species. Although bamboo is broadly associated with tropical forests of East and Southeast Asia, native varieties can be found as far south as Argentina and Chile, to the west in India, and even the frigid foothills of the Himalayas. Native bamboo species can be seen flourishing in sub-Saharan Africa and even the southeastern United States.
[img]376|left|||no_popup[/img] Bamboo is actually a fast-growing grass with a woody stem. Some bamboo has been known to grow as rapidly as 60 centimeters, or 24 inches, a day. One bamboo species has been clocked surging skyward at the rate of 121 centimeters, or 47 inches, in a single 24-hour period. Many prehistoric bamboo soared 250 feet above the forest floor.
[img]377|left|||no_popup[/img] Grasses, like bamboo, 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. For example, the popular indoor "lucky bamboo," grown hydroponically in vases of water is actually draceana sanderana, a member of the lily family (Liliaceae).
Bamboo is known by many names. In standard Mandarin, bamboo is called zhu. The Japanese call it take (tah-kay); to the Filipinos it’s kawayan; while the Vietnamese refer to as tre (tray); speakers of the Hindi tongue in India say vainoo and to Koreans bamboo is dae (day).
[img]378|left|||no_popup[/img] Bamboo's long life makes it a Chinese symbol of longevity, while in India it is an icon of friendship. In Japan, a bamboo forest sometimes surrounds a Shinto shrine as part of a sacred barrier against evil. Bamboo also symbolizes the Vietnamese soul: gentle, straightforward, hard working optimism displaying unity and adaptability. Traditional Vietnamese villages are surrounded by thick bamboo hedges.
Several Asian cultures, including that of the Andaman Islands, an archipelago nestled in the Bay of Bengal midway between Thailand and Sri Lanka, believe that humanity emerged from a bamboo stem. In the Philippine creation myth, legend tells that the first man and the first woman each materialized from split bamboo. In Malaysian folklore, a similar story includes a man who dreams of a beautiful woman while sleeping under a bamboo plant; he wakes up and breaks the bamboo stem, discovering the woman inside.
[img]379|left|||no_popup[/img] The Japanese fable entitled the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (Taketori Monogatari) tells of a princess from the moon emerging from a shining bamboo section. An ethnic group in West Africa known as the Bozo was so named because in Bamana and other West Mande languages, boso means “bamboo house.”
Bamboo cane has been used as a weapon of insurrection in the Philippines and is essential to the Japanese sword-based martial art Kendo. Bamboo shoots are a key ingredient in many Asian dishes, and are the famously favorite food of the Chinese giant panda.
Bamboo has also figured prominently into American scientific lore. One of Thomas Edison’s first commercially successful incandescent electric bulbs used a filament fabricated from carbonized bamboo.
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Bamboo has been used in construction for several hundred years. Its hardness combined with its tensile flexibility has made it an ideal building component. Scaffolds used in modern high-rise construction throughout Asia utilize bamboo because of its relative ease of assembly in concert with its load tolerance. In the U.S., its unique hues and durability have made bamboo highly sought after for everything from furniture and accent paneling to fences and flooring. Recently, a Taiwanese company even released a prototype laptop computer encased in bamboo.
[img]381|left|||no_popup[/img] One of the latest uses for bamboo has come from the apparel industry. For several years, knitting needles have been formed out of this versatile grass. But now, new techniques have allowed bamboo fiber to be used for yarn and fabric. Many are calling it the eco-fiber for the 21st century. Its promoters claim that it is soft, absorbent, antibacterial, U.V.-resistant, hypoallergenic and thermo-regulating, all with the feel of cotton.
Towering bamboo forests conjure images of enchantment, serenity and peace. Fans of the 2003 film Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, remember the astonishing fantasy sequence as the ancient Chinese swordsmen balanced and battled while bounding amid the rustling tops of giant bamboo.
[img]382|left|||no_popup[/img] Bamboo can be roughly divided between two types, clumpers and runners. Clumping bamboos are mostly native to tropical countries, such as Indonesia, Burma, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Thailand and southern China. A few "mountain bamboos" from the Himalayas and the Andes are temperate clumpers that can survive in areas with freezing winters. Clumping bamboo, such as the large genus Bambusa, develop from branched clusters of short, pachymorph rhizomes – underground stems bearing roots that turn upward as soon as they are formed, each rhizome developing into a new culm or shoot close to the parent plant.
[img]383|left|||no_popup[/img] Running bamboos, such as the genus Phyllostachys, develop from long, slender, leptomorph rhizomes that grow horizontally under the soil. These bamboos send up aerial culms or shoots from buds that develop at intervals along the rhizome, behind the continually growing rhizome tip. Rhizomes of running bamboos can grow more than 30 feet in one year. Entire hillsides of this type of bamboo can develop asexually from a single ancestral rhizome. In fact, the dense forests of Phyllostachys nigra (Black bamboo) in the rain forests of east Maui represent massive clonal colonies.
[img]384|left|||no_popup[/img] Bamboo in a variety of styles and sizes can be used to create your own hidden garden of enchantment or to enunciate the architectural features of your home. Soaring constellations of Pyllostachys bambusoides (Marliac) or nigra (black bamboo) can form the core node that will alter your garden into an urban refuge.
Bamboo like the Fargesia robusta is a good choice for a clumping bamboo that can create a narrow architectural screen for your garden. This species has dark green foliage and light green culms, with new shoots that are hairy and rusty red upon emergence from the ground in early spring.
[img]385|left|||no_popup[/img] Ornamental varieties such as the dwarf Buddha’s Belly bamboo, Bambusa ventricosa, can provide textural intonation and beautifully complement the unexpected tranquility of a water feature or pond. Rare bamboo, like the Thamnocalamus crassinodus, from the eastern Himalayas, with its slender pastel blue stalks can add a surprising hint of color to your garden. With its feather-like grain and leaves draping from burgundy-tinted branches, this bamboo is well suited to cool coastal areas.
Giant bamboo similar to the Dendrocalamus latiflorus that are native to China can create a distinctive canopy to cloister any garden. At a maximum height of 80 feet (24 m) with culms that are 10 inches (24 cm) in diameter, this clumping bamboo will supply your urban retreat with shade, form a barrier against din beyond your gates, and crown your garden with one of the true wonders of the natural world
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When it comes to bamboo, imagination is the only limitation. These plants thrive in the climatic conditions that predominate in Southern California. Our nursery has one of the widest selections of bamboo – both rare and common – in the Los Angeles region. It is one of our signature plants. Come stroll through our garden of enchantment, and let us help you imagine the dimensions of your bamboo sanctuary.
To learn more about plants, visit our website at www.thejungle.biz or email me at carlos@thejungle.biz.
Carlos Saez is the owner of The Jungle Nursery, a leading designer garden center specializing in unique sculptural plants, tropicals, succulents, bamboo and a wide selection of indoor foliage including orchids. The Jungle, 1900 Sawtelle Blvd., West Los Angeles. 310. 235.2875.
Mr. Saez’ gardening column appears on Wednesdays.
