Bamboo

The fastest-growing plant in the world

Bamboo can grow 1 metre in a day — you can watch it grow! It's not a tree but a giant grass. Bamboo is as strong as steel — people build houses, bridges and bicycles from it. Pandas eat only bamboo. Bamboo flowers once in 100 years and then dies.

Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis) is the large bamboo of China and Japan, growing to 28 m. Bamboo is a giant grass in the cereal family; its stem is made of hollow segments. Growth record: 91 cm in 24 hours (Guinness). A stem matures in 3–5 years and regrows faster than timber — making it an eco-friendly building material. Its tensile strength is close to steel. Many species flower only once every 60–120 years, the whole population at once, and then die — the reason is still a mystery. A bamboo grove releases 35% more oxygen per hectare than a forest.

Fun facts

• Bamboo has grown 91 cm in a day — that's 4 cm an hour!
• Bamboo isn't a tree — it's grass, just very big.
• Bicycles, bridges and even 10-storey buildings have been built from bamboo.