Plant with nothing to waste

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33816, 12 April 1975, Page 11

Plant with nothing to waste

I By

JOHN DRUMMOND)

Is it possible to find a single plant which can be used to provide not only a home, but also furniture and clothes — and food and drink into the bargain.

The coconut palm is one such plant; the bamboo plant is another. The bamboo plant is technically a genus of grasses with woody aerial stems. A native of tropical and semi-tropical regions, the bamboo thrives especially well in East India, Malaya, China, Japan, Africa, the indies, and parts of the American continent. But it grows, well in temperate zones, too.

Of some hundreds of species found in these regions, all are noted for their graceful beauty and the speed and density of their growth. One species, which combines considerable hardiness with exquisite beauty, has both stems and leaves subtly coloured in green, white, yellow and pink.. Fast growth The speed with which this wonderful plant grows in tropical climates is so incredible as to be seemingly attributable to some “Alice-in-Wonderland” magic. The common bamboo, for instance. will grow 18in a day — or about (in an hour. Usually it attains its maximum height, ranging from 50ft to 100 ft, in about six months. Other species which are quite tiny, by comparison, are nevertheless exquisitely beautiful and reach maturity with a height of 2ft to 4ft. In temperate zones the most common cane is the “metake,” which grows to about 20ft tall; a second useful bamboo is the “fastuosa.” “All profit” The bamboo, once established. clings tenaciously to life and is almost indestructible. Cutting it down and making a bonfire over the roots may appear to do the trick — until the spring. Then long lines of bamboo shoots will he seen marching ruthlessly in Indian file across flower beds and

lawns, all stemming from the original clump! This natural tendency to spread in all directions accounts for the bamboo's popularity and usefulness in the tropics. It grows swiftly and sturdily without special attention, and has in fact been described in the East as “the plant that is ail profit”—so vast are its uses. Drink found In Southern Asia families wearing “bamboo clothes” grow up in houses built entirely of bamboo, with bamboo walls and floors, bamboo tables, chairs and benches, and bamboo cooking utensils. The fuel in the cooking stove is bamboo; the gutters round the house are made from the hollow bamboo poles; the palisade surrounding the house is likewise contrived from bamboo canes and leaves.

When the family eats, the main dish will probably be tender young bamboo shoots seasoned with herbs. Even other peoples have found that bamboo shoots when salted, dried and preserved in vinegar make a delicious pickle.

Even drink can be obtained from the bamboo. From the hollow joints of older plants a fluid is collected which makes a stimulating drink. That same fluid, if left to mature in the plant, is known as

“tabischeer” and is used to cure burns.

Intensive research

The Eastern farmer, if he wishes, may irrigate his farm by using pipes made of hollow bamboo poles fastened together. His wife carries water in bamboo buckets. While father smokes his bamboo pipe after dinner, some musical member of the family will provide music on a softtoned bamboo flute. Indeed, the uses of bamboo are as endless and variable as a catalogue. More than 1000 years ago the Chinese pioneered in the technique of drilling wells, using home-made drills and bamboo pipes. In 1952, the Swiss Everest Expedition found their best way to bridge a crevasse which held them up on a previous attempt would be

to take with them special bridging equipment made of bamboo. Impressed with its sturdiness and endless uses, numerous technical and agricultural institutes and experimental stations are carrying out intensive research designed to exploit the bamboo commercially. For paper-making and newsprint the bamboo has immense possbilities, for its high average yield of paper pulp — about eight or nine tons per acre per year — shows that as an economic proposition it is as good as timber.