Bamboo

Bamboo is a type of giant grass that grows in warm parts of the world. It looks like a tree, but it is not one. Bamboo belongs to the same plant family as the grass in your yard. There are more than 1,400 different kinds of bamboo. Most grow in Asia, but some grow in Africa, Australia, and North and South America.

Bamboo has hollow stems called culms. The culms are divided into sections by solid joints called nodes. This design is one of bamboo's secrets. Hollow tubes with reinforced joints are very strong for their weight. Engineers use the same idea to build skyscrapers and bicycle frames. The biggest kinds of bamboo can grow over 100 feet tall, taller than a 10-story building.

What makes bamboo really unusual is how fast it grows. While an oak tree may take 50 years to reach full size, some bamboo species reach full height in a single growing season. The fastest kinds grow more than three feet a day. That is faster than any other plant on Earth.

Bamboo also grows in a strange way. The stems do not get thicker as the plant ages. A bamboo culm comes out of the ground at almost its final width and just shoots upward. Underground, the roots spread sideways and send up new culms each year. A whole bamboo forest is often one connected plant, sharing roots below the soil.

Many bamboo species flower only once every several decades. When the time comes, every plant of that species flowers at the same time, all over the world. Then they all die together. Scientists are not sure how the plants keep track of time so well, or why they bloom in sync. It is one of the strangest mysteries in the plant world.

Bamboo is the main food of the giant panda. A panda can eat 40 pounds of bamboo in a single day. Pandas are not the only fans. Gorillas, lemurs, elephants, and bamboo lemurs all eat it too.

People use bamboo for almost everything. It becomes houses, scaffolding, floors, paper, chopsticks, fishing rods, fences, baskets, and musical instruments. In China, India, and Japan, bamboo has been a part of daily life for thousands of years. Some scientists hope it can replace wood and plastic in many products, because it grows back so fast after being cut. A bamboo plant can be harvested every few years without dying, while a tree forest takes decades to recover.