A Closer Look
By Sean Green
Photo Credit April Green
American Bamboo (Arundinaria)
Ancient culture and resources are easily buried and lost with the churning of modern technologies. I am increasingly fascinated with ancient ways, and the more I learn, the more I appreciate the genius involved. The most fundamental task of gaining food and shelter would be beyond most of our modern population without the forgotten technologies of the past. The people of early civilizations engineered tools and weapons from whatever resources they could find near them. The bamboos are the largest member of the grass family and, although associated with the “Old World” of the Eastern Hemisphere, bamboo was once common and abundant in the Southeastern regions of North America. A closer look at America’s native bamboos may revive its value as an agricultural resource even in the modern world. All continents except Antarctica and Europe have at least one native bamboo. The bamboos are a flowering perennial evergreen plant in the grass family and divided into three “tribes” that correspond with geographic distribution. Arundinariae is the woody bamboo found in temperate climates and includes the genus (Arundinaria), which is the only temperate bamboo native to North America. Arundinaria, is commonly called “cane” but is not the sugarcane (Saccharum) we think of when we hear it. Sometimes the terminology “cane” and “bamboo” are incorrectly used to contrast one from the other. From a scientific perspective, they are essentially the same, they are both grasses in the Poaceae family. As a grass, these plants lack sapwood, heartwood or growth rings that characterize other woody plants. The difference in terminology describes more of a regional difference than a biologic one. Species known as “bamboo” belong to the Phyllostachys and Bambusa genera native to South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia. Species described as “cane” include the Arundo genera of the Mediterranean Basin and the Far East and the Arundinaria genera of North America. Early explorers of North America described vast stands of “canebrakes,” which are thickets of bamboo, specifically the Arundinaria genera. Canebrakes develop in the moist environments of floodplains, wetlands, and rivers but can also grow in pine, oak, and cypress forests. Prior to the European colonization the once abundant canebrakes were home to over 50 species of invertebrates, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and birds. The prey and game within canebrakes could be hunted year round. The American bison (Bison bison), The American black bear (Ursus americanus), Marsh rabbits(Sylvilagus palustris) ,White Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and Wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) were once common denizens. The abundance of prey animals living in canebrakes attracted some of the region’s most significant predators which may have included the red wolf(Canis rufus), the Florida black wolf (Canis lupus floridanus), the Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi) and the bobcat (Lynx WWW.INTHEFIELDMAGAZINE.COM
rufus), and in northern Florida the infamous Canebrake or Timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus). Many of these animals are now endangered or extinct. The bamboo found in canebrakes is just as fascinating as the animals it supports. Bamboo is one of the most versatile natural resources in the history of human civilization. It has been a food and medicine as well as raw material for dwellings, tools, weapons, and jewelry. The earliest surviving evidence of a bamboo dwelling was found in South America and is estimated to be over 9,500 years old. Modern studies have examined and documented some remarkable chemical, physical, and mechanical properties of bamboo that ancient cultures seem to have known intuitively. Unlike wood, bamboo has no rays or knots and thereby distribute stress through the length of the stalk more efficiently. Testing reveals bamboo has a higher tensile (stretching) strength than many steel alloys, a higher compression (load) strength than many concrete mixtures, and a higher specific strength (strength/weight ratio) than many other materials. Bamboo fibers are dense enough to allow it to bend without breaking and the high silica content of the fibers cannot be digested by termites. Houses made of bamboo are known to withstand 9.0 magnitude earthquakes. When bent, bamboo will actually produce measurable electricity. Thomas Edison’s earliest commercially produced light bulbs used carbonized bamboo filaments from 1880 – 1886. Bamboo, specifically River cane(Arundinaria gigantea), was used by the tribes of the Eastern Woodlands, notably the Cherokee, Seminole, and Choctaw to make various weapons such as blowguns, bows, arrows, and spears. The traditional Native American flute and tobacco pipes were made of smaller culms (stalks) of bamboo. Bamboo is resistant to damp conditions and is ideal for weaving fish traps, bed mats, rope, and clothing, in fact, unlike fibers like hemp, bamboo gets stronger, not weaker when wet. Bamboo was used as a writing surface as early as 1500 BC; Sanskrit records from this period describe parts of the bamboo plant that are used in ayurveda (Indian) and Chinese medicine. As a crop, bamboo is one of the most sustainable and valuable yields in the history of agriculture. Bamboo grows faster than any other plant in the world and can do so on marginal land with minimal fertilizer and pesticide inputs. Bamboo has a matrix of rhizomes that filter sedimentation and nutrient pollution out of agriculture runoff and stabilize the soil in areas prone to flooding. More than 98% of the large canebrakes that once characterized the Southeast are gone; what remains of the canebrake ecosystem is considered “critically endangered” by the National Biologic Service. Native Arundinaria bamboo will grow well in USDA hardiness zones 5 through 9 in well drained sandy, loamy, or clay soils and could offer tremendous opportunity for Florida farmers, our community, and our local environment, if we take a closer look. INTHEFIELD MAGAZINE
August 2015
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