Bamboo: The Fastest Growing Plant
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
Danny Xu
4/25/20252 min read
Many people simply know bamboo as the tall, skinny, plant that pandas like to eat. However, bamboo are far more fascinating plants than what meets the eye and have a lot more going for them then simply energy for the panda population and many day to day items are actually created from bamboo.
What is Bamboo?
Bamboo, though it is tall and has a trunk like feature similar to a tree, is actually considered to be a type of grass. During the summer, bamboo is able to grow rapidly, in fact, some bamboo are able to grow about 1 meter in a single day, making it the fastest growing plant on Earth. This makes using bamboo for structures or other innovations very efficient since the wood on trees or other plants take much longer to grow. Apart from it's environmental impact, bamboo has also been used by humans for food like bamboo shoots in ramen, construction like roofing and scaffolding, instruments, and China even used it's leave for medicines.
How does Bamboo Benefit the Enviornment?
Bamboo, is not only very helpful and easily renewable for human uses but it also provides many positive impacts for the Earth's environment. Despite being a grass, bamboo is actually able to store twice the amount of carbon dioxide that trees are able to. As the issue of global warming increases as a result of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide entering the Earth's atmosphere, trapping the sun's sunlight, plants like bamboo are essential for helping prevent the effects of global warming. Humans commonly state that trees are able to produce the clean oxygen humans need to thrive but bamboo is actually able to produce about 30% more oxygen than other plants are able to. As mentioned previously, bamboo is also the main food source for pandas and helps maintain their population. The bamboo forests are also the homes for pandas and without them, pandas would also lose their home. Finally, bamboo also helps decrease the effects of soil erosion due to it's strong roots holding the soil in place. The top layer of soil holds a lot of nutrients that plants need and when water washes that away, it harms the health of plants. Bamboo is able to help combat this issue.
Overall, bamboo is a very fascinating plant that provides a brilliant resource for humans to use to create objects in everyday life and is a contributor to helping recover the damaged environment of Earth.
Sources: Bamboo Land. n.d. “Useful Info about Bamboo.” Bamboo Land. https://www.bambooland.com.au/useful-info/about-bamboo.
“Bamboo: A Sustainable, Eco-Friendly Plant.” n.d. Forestnation.com. https://forestnation.com/blog/bamboo-a-sustainable-eco-friendly-plant/.
Editor. n.d. “What Kind of Nature Benefits Does Bamboo Offer?” Www.green.earth. https://www.green.earth/blog/what-kind-of-nature-benefits-does-bamboo-offer.