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Bamboo? Bamboos Bamboo forest in Kyoto, Japan Scientific classification Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Liliopsida Order: Poales Family: Poaceae Subfamily: Bambusoideae Supertribe: Bambusodae Tribe: Bambuseae Kunth ex Dumort. Diversity Around 91 genera and 1,000 species Subtribes Arthrostylidiinae Arundinariinae Bambusinae Chusqueinae Guaduinae Melocanninae Nastinae Racemobambodinae Shibataeinae See the full Taxonomy of the Bambuseae. Bamboos are a group of woody perennial evergreen plants in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Some of its members are giants, forming by far the largest members of the grass family. There are 91 genera and about 1,000 species of bamboo. They are found in diverse climates, from cold mountains to hot tropical regions. They occur from Northeast Asia (at 50°N latitude in Sakhalin), south throughout East Asia west to the Himalaya, and south to northern Australia. They also occur in sub-Saharan Africa, and in the Americas from the southeast of the USA south to Chile, there reaching their furthest south anywhere, at 47°S latitude. Major areas with no native bamboos include Europe, north Africa, western Asia, northern North America, most of Australia, and Antarctica. The stems, or 'culms', can range in height from a few centimetres to 40 metres, with stem diameters ranging from 1 mm to 30 cm. The stems are jointed, with regular nodes; each node bears one side bud (three in Chusquea). These buds do not necessarily develop (especially in lower portions of the culm of tall bamboos) but are present. Buds that do develop ramify quickly with very short basal internodes into a cluster of several shoots, which usually develop into branches and occasionally into adventitious rhizomes. Branchlets form from the branches, and leaves grow off the branchlets. They are thus, unlike most other grasses, extensively branched; in large-growing species a single stem may carry many thousands of branchlets. Although bamboo is a grass, many of the larger bamboos are very tree-like in appearance and they are sometimes called "bamboo trees". The reason bamboos are so different from trees is they lack a vascular cambium layer and meristem cells at the top of the culm. The vascular cambium is the perpetually growing layer of a tree's trunk beneath the bark that makes it increase in diameter each year. The meristems make the tree grow taller. A single culm (stem) of bamboo from an established rhizome (root) system reaches full height in one growing season, but then persists for several years, gradually increasing the number of side branches and branchlets, but growing neither broader nor taller. Some species of bamboo rarely flower, some of them only every 10-100 or more years. Some of these species are monocarpic, the plant dying after the seed matures. Furthermore, all the individuals of the species will flower at the same time in a large geographical region. This is thought to have evolved because it reduces the effect of predators of the seed, who would be unable to depend on a predictable food supply. Check out the following recipes that are tagged "Bamboo":
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