1). Bamboo grows one-third faster than the fastest growing tree. Some species of bamboo can grow up to three feet per day. Sizes can range from miniature to culms of 180 feet.
2). Bamboo is ready for harvesting in 3 to 5 years, compared to the almost 100 years it can take for maple, oak, or cherry.
3). Bamboo generates more oxygen than an equivalent stand of trees.
4). Bamboo has a tensile strength rating of 28,000 psi, versus 23,000 for steel.
5). Bamboo is adaptable to many environments, and will thrive in climates with anywhere from 30 to 250 inches of annual rainfall.
6). After the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, bamboo was the first plant to turn green again.
7). Bamboo has inherent soil-erosion prevention capability. The rhizomes stitch the soil together in fragile areas.
8). Bamboo and the industries it has spawned provide income, food and housing for more than 2.2 billion people worldwide.
9). Bamboo is a high-yield renewable resource. Raw bamboo has long been used as construction material for housing. Ply-bamboo is now being used for wall-paneling and flooring. Bamboo pulp is used for making paper, briquettes, and fuel. Raw bamboo can also be used as rebar for reinforced concrete beams.
10). In Limon, Costa Rica, only the bamboo houses from the National Bamboo Project stood after the earthquake of 1992.
11). Bamboo as a species came into being over 200 million years ago. This means that dinosaurs may have very well eaten bamboo.
12). The needle in Alexander Graham Bell’s first telegraph was made of bamboo.
13). In 1882 Thomas Edison used bamboo as filaments in the world’s first light-bulb manufacturing.
14). There is a suspension bridge over a river in China that is 750 ft long, 9 ft wide, and rests entirely on bamboo cables suspended over the water. It doesn’t have a single nail or piece of iron in it.
15). Bamboo root systems can live for hundreds of years, producing new canes each year.
16). It is thought that the flute may have been invented by cave people toying with a hollow bamboo stem.
17). Bamboo is used largely for scaffolding in Asian countries and can reach up to 60 stories.
18). In Bangladesh, 73% of the population lives in bamboo houses.
19). Bamboo shoots are edible and nutritious.
20). Bamboo has one of the highest photosynthesis rates of any plant.
21). Bamboo grows to its full height in a period of six to twelve weeks.
22). A giant panda’s diet is about 99% bamboo.
23). Giant pandas eat anywhere from 20 to 40 pounds of bamboo a day.
24). Not only pandas, but elephants, lemurs, mountain gorillas, and horses eat bamboo too.
25). Bamboo flowers every 20-100 years, and when a given species does, it happens worldwide.