Bamboo is the Fastest Growing Plant on Earth

Bamboo is the fastest growing plant on earth. Some species of bamboo can grow more than 1 meter per day, which is about 4 cm per hour. No other plant grows faster. Two examples of such fast growing bamboos are Madake (Phyllostachys reticulata) and Moso (Phyllostachys edulis).

A new bamboo shoot will reach its full height in less than a year by going through several rapid spikes of growth. The largest bamboo species in the world is Dendrocalamus sinicus, which can grow up to 46 m in height and up to 37 cm in diameter. 

Bamboo, the Largest Member of the Grass Family

While bamboo may grow taller than some trees, bamboo is not a tree but a group of plants that belong to the grass family. Bamboo plants come out of the ground with a fixed diameter and stems will not get thicker over the years (as is the case with trees). In addition, bamboo also doesn’t grow taller as it gets older. A fully grown 1 year old bamboo stem, however, is not considered mature yet. Depending on the species and diameter, it usually takes another 1 to 4 years for a bamboo stem to mature into a hard, wood-like material. The bigger the stem, the longer it will take to mature.

Another amazing feature of bamboo is that it is the only type of grass that can develop itself into a forest. Bamboo will constantly reproduce itself, even after harvesting, new shoots will continue to sprout from its extensive root system without having to replant. Because of all these unique characteristics, bamboo is rightfully labeled as a highly renewable and sustainable resource.

Daily Growth: Night vs Day

Most running bamboos (leptomorph) such as those in the genus of Phyllostachys grow faster during the day than during the night. On the other hand, clumping bamboos (pachymorph) in tropical regions grow faster during the night than during the day.

For example, Dendrocalamus strictus grows twice as much during the night than during the day, and there are species such as Bambusa oldhamii which grows up to three times more during the night than during the day.

What are the Fastest Growing Bamboo Species?

According to the records mentioned by Koichiro Ueda the greatest growth rates of a bamboo culm shoots per day (24 hours) are the following:

• 121 cm by Madake, Phyllostachys reticulata (12 cm in diameter) which is the maximum record of daily growth. It was measured by Koichiro Ueda on the outskirts of Kioto on June 23, 1955.

• 119 cm by Moso, Phyllostachys edulis (diameter of 16 cm), observed on May 24, 1956 by Koichiro Ueda in Nagaoka, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan.

• 91 cm by Bambusa bambos observed at Kew Garden in England in 1855.

In Colombia, the maximum growth observed in Guadua angustifolia has been 30 cm in 24 hours, although the average is around 11-15 cm per day.

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