All About Bamboo

In Part 2 of All About Bamboo, we discussed animal consumption of bamboo and how bamboo is prepared and used for commercial purposes, including making bamboo sheets and bamboo clothing. In Part 3, we will discuss ornamental bamboos, bamboo in Asian Culture and bamboo myths and legends.

Ornamental bamboos

Many bamboos are popular as garden trees, and there are two general patterns for the growth of bamboo: “clumping” and “running.”

Clumping bamboo: Tends to spread slowly. The growth pattern of the rhizomes is a gradual expansion, similar to ornamental grasses.
Running bamboo: Has the potential for aggressive growth. They spread mainly through their roots and/or rhizomes, which can spread widely underground and send up new culms to break through the surface. Some can send out runners of several meters a year! If neglected, they can cause problems by moving into adjacent areas.

Regular maintenance helps to contain major bamboo growth. If rhizomes are cut and removed, they will usually cease growing if left in the ground. If any bamboo shoots do come up outside of the bamboo area afterwards, their presence indicates the precise location of the missed rhizome and can be removed from the ground. The fibrous roots that radiate from the rhizomes do not grow to be more bamboo so if they stay in the ground, that’s not a problem.

The second way to control growth is by surrounding the plant or grove with a physical barrier. This method is very detrimental to ornamental bamboo because the bamboo inside the barrier quickly becomes root bound, causing rhizomes to escape over the top or down underneath, breaking the barrier.

Bamboo inside barriers deteriorates in quality, and fewer culms will grow each year. The culms that do grow, will live shorter periods, their diameter will decrease, they’ll have fewer leaves and the leaves will turn yellow because the root mass depletes the soil of nutrients.

Concrete and specially-rolled HDPE plastic are the usual materials used to contain bamboo, and is placed in a deep ditch (2-3 feet) around the planting (and angled out at the top to direct the rhizomes to the surface). Barriers usually fail sooner or later (within 5-6 years), and rhizomes can dive underneath the barrier in as few as three years.

In small areas, regular maintenance is the best method of controlling the spreading bamboos.

As mentioned before, bamboos seldom and unpredictably flower, and the frequency of flowering varies from species to species. Once they do flower, the bamboo plant often dies. Though there are always a few species of bamboo in flower at any given time, collectors typically obtain their prized plants as divisions of bamboo plants, rather than waiting for seeds to be produced.

The ornamental plant sold in containers and marketed as “lucky bamboo” (Dracaena sanderiana) is actually not a bamboo plant. It is a hardy member of the lily family, which grows in the dark, tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia and Africa. Lucky Bamboo has long been associated with the Eastern practice of Feng Shui.

Bamboo in Asian culture

Bamboo’s long life makes it a Chinese symbol of longevity, while in India it is a symbol of friendship. The rarity of bamboo’s blooming has also led to the flowers being regarded as a sign of impending famine. This may be due to rats feeding upon the profusion of flowers, then multiplying and destroying a large part of the local food supply.

In Chinese culture, the bamboo, plum blossom, orchid, and chrysanthemum are collectively referred to as the “Four Noble Ones.” These four plants also represent the four seasons and, in Confucian ideology, four aspects of the junzi.

The pine tree, the bamboo, and the plum blossom are also admired for their perseverance under harsh conditions, and are together known as the “Three Friends in Winter,” and is traditionally used as a system of ranking in Japan. Pine is of the first rank, bamboo is of second rank and plum is of the third.

In Japan, a bamboo forest sometimes surrounds a Shinto shrine as part of a sacred barrier against evil. Many Buddhist temples also have bamboo groves.

In northern Indian state of Assam, the fermented bamboo paste known as khorisa is known locally as a folk remedy for the treatment of impotence, infertility and menstrual pains.

Myths and legends

Several Asian cultures, including that of the Andaman Islands, believe that humanity emerged from a bamboo stem. In the Philippines, legend tells that the first man and the first woman emerged from split bamboo stems on an island created after the battle of the elemental forces (Sky and Ocean).

In Malaysian legends a similar story includes a man who dreams of a beautiful woman while sleeping under a bamboo plant. He wakes up and breaks the bamboo stem, discovering the woman inside. The Japanese folktale “Tale of the Bamboo Cutter” tells of a princess from the Moon emerging from a shining bamboo section.

Hawaiian bamboo is a kinolau or body form of the Polynesian creator god Kane Milohai.

Bamboo cane is also the weapon of Vietnamese legendary hero Saint Giong who grew up immediately and magically from the age of three because of his national liberating wish against invaders.

An ancient Vietnamese legend, “The Hundred-knot Bamboo Tree,” tells of a poor, young farmer who fell in love with his landlord’s beautiful daughter. The farmer asked the landlord for his daughter’s hand in marriage, but the proud landlord would not allow her to be bound in marriage to a poor farmer. The landlord decided to foil the marriage with an impossible deal in which the farmer must bring him a “bamboo tree of one-hundred nodes”.

Buddha appeared to the farmer and told him that such a tree could be made from one-hundred nodes from several different trees, and gave the farmer four magic words to attach the many nodes of bamboo: “Khắc nhập, khắc xuất”, which means “joined together immediately, fell apart immediately”.

The triumphant farmer returned to the landlord and demanded his daughter. Curious to see such a long bamboo, the landlord was magically joined to the bamboo when he touched it as the young farmer said the first two magic words.

The story ends with the happy marriage of the farmer and the landlord’s daughter after the landlord agreed to the marriage and asked to be separated from the bamboo.

For more great information on bamboo and bamboo products, continue reading this blog, and visit Green Earth Bamboo!