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Fundamentals of Biology
NOTE: What follows is a paper written for this class by a junior high
student. This is the type of thing I am looking for in a short paper. Bear in
mind, however, that the current class is a high school level class, so the
overall standards will be a little higher.
All About Bamboo
by Daniel D. Green
Bamboo is one of the world’s most versatile plants known
to man. It can be stronger than steel, more flexible than plastic, and
nutritious also. Bamboo’s unique structure of is the reason for its
versatility. The culm (stalk) is a hollow tube with nodes, or joints, inside. An
interesting note is that birds bones have a similar structure which enables them
to fly. The culm, unlike trees, has living tissue scattered throughout its
walls. The plant grows by rhizomes, runners, and occasionally by seeds when it
flowers. The shoot, which grows up from ground, is protected by a sheath until
it emerges. Another interesting tidbit is that the shoot’s diameter will stay
the same and only grow taller with age.
One of the most prominent features of the bamboo is its
amazing rate of growth. It can be as fast as four feet in twenty-four hours. If
you watch carefully, you can watch some species grow!
There are about a thousand species of bamboo, of some
fifty genera. They range from plants the size of field grass to plants 120 feet
tall and a foot thick. There is the common Green striped; the Black, which is
mostly ornamental; the Mottled; the Golden, whose nodes are compacted at the
bottom and elongated toward the top; the Giant, which can be used for pipes and
lumber; the Square, which is square shaped; and the Tortoiseshell, which
resembles turtles cowering head to tale, and is a highly-prized mutation. They
can be divided into two main categories: sympodial (clump), and monopodial
(runner). Clump types grow symmetrically outward in a circle; the runner kinds
send their rhizomes in all directions. The clump type can usually be found in
tropical climates, and the runner type in the temperate zones.
An unusual feature about the bamboo plant is that whenever
a species flowers (which can be once in several years up to once in 120 years)
all the plants of that species, no matter where they are, flower at the same
time. When this flowering occurs, they produce blooms, drop seeds, and then die.
This can be disastrous to humans (or animals) dependent on the bamboo. The
flowering of a species that grows in India is a particular problem. Every thirty
years the bamboo flowers and produces a fruit that drops to the ground. Rats
devour them and multiply at an enormous rate. The rat population then can
destroy the wheat and rice crops, and cause outbreaks of plague. But on the
other hand, other species have been helpful in preventing famine as the people
can roast and eat the seeds.
Bamboo’s strength, flexibility, versatility, and
especially its availability makes it invaluable to East Asian poor in
construction of houses, boats, scaffolding, bridges, etc. It is also used for
reinforcement in concrete. In Japan, bamboo is frequently used for building
houses and other small buildings. It is also commonly used for making toys and
tools; in the past (more so than today) it was made into high-quality fishing
poles. Scaffolding is frequently made of bamboo instead of steel, because it can
withstand the winds better. It is tied to the building by split bamboo, and is
not freestanding.
Perhaps one of the most astonishing engineering feats
involving bamboo is the building of large suspension bridges with cables of
twisted bamboo. Marco Polo, in the 13th century, observed the use of these
cables in towing ships in China, and remarked that they were stronger than hemp.
So much stronger, in fact, that one bridge over the Min River is still in use
after a thousand years. It is considered one of the engineering marvels of the
world.
Bamboos usefulness is extended to culinary uses as well.
The young shoots can be boiled, pickled, or salted. To increase the tenderness
of the young shoot, the bamboo farmers walk around on the ground. When they feel
bamboo shoots growing underground, they make a mound of dirt so that the shoot
doesn’t see light and it becomes even more tender. The Chinese cuisine
emphasizes texture; the Chinese value bamboo shoots for their crispness and
subtle flavor.
The Chinese aren’t the only ones who appreciate the
taste of fresh bamboo. It is the sole diet of the panda bear. They eat culms,
leaves, and everything. This has been a cause for concern due to the flowering
and dying of the umbrella bamboo, one of their main staples. This, combined with
wanton human destruction of great bamboo forests, places the panda population in
danger of extinction.
Bamboo also has a pharmaceutical value, at least in Asian
cultures. The rhizome of the black bamboo, when mixed with other plants, is used
in treating kidney ailments. Heating the same bamboo, and drinking the liquid
that runs out of it is another treatment to bring down a fever. The culm of a
certain bamboo, burned to ash, cures prickly heat. Also, in some tropical
bamboos, a substance called tabasheer forms and hardens between the nodes. A few
of the Asian peoples use this for coughs and asthma and even as an aphrodisiac.
The Japanese particularly are fond of using bamboo for
aesthetic purposes. There are 662 kinds of bamboo on these islands. The typical
house uses bamboo in just about every room, and especially as the corner post of
the tokonoma, the alcove where art work is displayed. Numerous articles are
crafted from bamboo: baskets, plant pots, chairs, fences, dueling staves.
Perhaps the strangest use of bamboo is for the torturing
of fellow human beings. The main part of the bamboo plant used for torture is a
sheath of the culm covered with fine hairs. These hairs get under the skin and
produce intense irritation, mostly used for physiological torturing. The hairs
can also be mixed with food, and the bacteria may cause blood poisoning.
Another surprising former use of bamboo is in
candle-making. A wax-like substance coating the internodes of first-year culms
was used in olden days to make candles for the homes of Japanese lords. Also
more recently, yet still a while ago, charred bamboo was used, with partial
success, by Thomas Edison as a filament for his light bulb.
In India there is much being done by creative scientists
to find new uses for bamboo. Most promising is the different kinds of paper
being developed. The majority of paper used in India is being produced from
bamboo. Although you cannot get as much paper per acre as your average
paper-making tree, bamboo regenerates a whole lot quicker, being reharvestable
in three to four years as opposed to twenty years for a tree. Until they
invented paper two thousand years ago, the Chinese wrote on bamboo; wouldn’t
it be ironic if we returned to it now?
Scientists are always looking for ways to make lighter,
stronger, useful products. Composite construction materials are man made fibers
embedded in a matrix which holds them in parallel bundles. This is little more
than an imitation of bamboo’s qualities. The strength of this grass lies in
bundles of fibers running the length of the culm held in the matrix of pith.
Scientists get their inspiration from God’s design.
So as we conclude, bamboo is a plant of the past, the
present, and the future. As Luis Marden states, "Bamboo is all things to
some men, and some things to all men." Bamboo enriches the planet and aids
man. It nourishes the soil and prevents erosion from flooding and earthquakes;
it provides mankind with food, tools, instruments, toys, paper, and beauty.
Bibliography
Marden, Louis. "Bamboo, the Giant Grass." National Geographic,
October 1980, pp. 502 - 528.
Masefield, G.B., ed. The Oxford Book of Food Plants. London: Oxford
University Press, 1969.
Schery, Robert. Plants For Man. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1972.
Seymour, E.L.D., ed. The Wise Garden Encyclopedia. Harper Collins, 1990.
Taylor, Norman. Taylor’s Guide to Ground Covers, Vines, and Grasses.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1987. |