Certain species of bamboo can grow 91 centimetres (36 inches) within a 24-hour period, at a rate of almost 40 millimetres ( 1 + 1⁄ 2 in) an hour (equivalent to 1 mm every 90 seconds). īamboos include some of the fastest-growing plants in the world, due to a unique rhizome-dependent system. The absence of secondary growth wood causes the stems of monocots, including the palms and large bamboos, to be columnar rather than tapering. The dicotyledonous woody xylem is also absent. In bamboo, as in other grasses, the internodal regions of the stem are usually hollow and the vascular bundles in the cross-section are scattered throughout the stem instead of in a cylindrical arrangement.

The origin of the word 'bamboo' is uncertain, but it probably comes from the Dutch or Portuguese language, which originally borrowed it from Malay or Kannada. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. 'Bamboo' in ancient seal script (top) and regular script (bottom) Chinese charactersīamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae.

Bamboo silica