FRESHBAMBOO - Curiosities about bamboo

Curiosities:

Bamboo is not a tree but lignifying grass. In other words it turns into wood.

It's over 1,400 species and 75 genre of bamboo

As bamboo is edible, its young stalks are added to dishes in oriental cultures - and they taste very sweet.

Bamboo is the strongest plant in the world. It can hold weight comparable to steel.

In forests, bamboo is used to make fire walls.

Bamboo is the fastest growing plant in the world – some species can grow as quick as 1.2 m during 24 hours.

The largest areas of bamboo forests are in India and China.

In India 9 milion hectares are used to cultivate the plant.

Traditional Oriental belief holds that being in a bamboo grove restores calmness and stimulates creativity. Bamboo groves were also a favourite dwelling place of the Buddha.

During its life, one clump of bamboo can give 15 km of bamboo pipes.

Bamboo's tensile strength has been essential in the development of bridges. The Chinese invented suspension bridges using bamboo to cross rivers.

Bamboo grows up to 4000 m above sea level – as high as the lower parts of the Himalayas..

Bamboo species can vary grately – some lose their leaves in winter, some are evergreen.

Around the world, about one billion people live in houses made out of bamboo - 73% of the population in Bangladesh.

Bamboo is also used in the production of string and percussion musical instruments.

Thomas Edison used bamboo in 1882 for the filaments in the world’s first light bulb manufacturing. It's still working in Washington museum.

If bamboo disappeared off the face of the earth, about 30% of of the population of Asia would be homeless.

The needle in Alexander Graham Bell's first phonograph was made of bamboo.

Bamboo is almost as extensive as steel, and it is harder than graphite, which makes it the strongest plant in the world.