Bamboo
Family Gramineae (or Poaceae)
Bambusa vulgaris (Ba. vulgaris 1) and other species of Bambusa are woody perennials with a big underground rhizome, usually growing in clumps, with the greatest number of species in the Indo-Malaysian region, extending through China to Korea and Japan.
Bamboos have segmented culms, each of which consists of a series of nodes and internodes, with a sheath at each node. Young shoots which produce the new culms are massive and solid, protected by overlapping rigid sheaths. The culm usually reaches full height before branching. Lateral buds in the upper part of the culm grow out to produce branches, which in turn may produce secondary, and tertiary branches bearing leaves. Each leaf has a sheath and is usually linear in shape. Flowering is very variable. Some species flower and bear fruits with regular intervals, other species flower gregariously and die. Some species have never known to flower and only persist in a vegetative state. The spikelets are all alike, arranged in panicles, racemes, clusters or terminal heads. There are usually two glumes, each flower with 3 or 6 stamens and a superior ovary. The fruit is a small dry nut.
Bambusa vulgaris is the most widely distributed and cultivated bamboo. The culm is very strong with distinct nodes and internodes (Ba. vulgaris 2), (Ba. vulgaris 3), flexible (Ba. vulgaris 4) and adapted to a wide variety of uses, especially construction purposes (Ba. vulgaris 5). Culms (Ba. vulgaris 8) are used for building houses, rafts, bridges and scaffolding (Ba. vulgaris 7). Split culms provide boards for floors and walls. The longer internodes are used as buckets or plant pots. Other articles made from bamboo include water pipes, fishing rods, musical instruments and chopsticks. The Chinese have used bamboo pulp for papermaking since historical times. Young shoots are eaten (Ba. vulgaris 6), especially in China, Korea and Japan.