Growth:
With up to one meter per day, bamboo is the fastest growing land plant in the world, with a final height of: 10cm up to 40m and a Ø of 3mm up to 40cm.
Occurrence:
In the tropics as well as in cold regions. Bamboo grows at sea level and in locations up to 4.000m. Depending on the variety bamboo can withstand temperatures between -28 ° C and + 50 ° C.
Structure
Bamboo contains more cellulose and its fibers are longer and wider than those of other wood fibers, which makes it elastic and tensile. Bamboo is superior to reinforced concrete in many applications: Bamboo wood is e.g. less prone to shocks. It is therefore well suited for building houses in earthquake areas. Bamboo is known as “vegetable steel”. It has a high proportion of silica (77%), which makes it more stable and harder than e.g. oak and beech wood.
Harvest:
The plant does not die during harvest. Only one offshoot is removed with the stalk, so that a single bamboo plant can produce up to 1000 hectares of usable trunks within 35 years.
Roots:
The bamboo root system is well suited for stabilizing slopes and surfaces and as dam protection against flooding as well as for regulating the groundwater. With harvesting the root system remains and sprouts again.
CO2 storage:
Up to four times as much as other tree species.