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.

    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.

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