Bamboo in Permaculture Design
Food Plants - Perennial, Plant Systems, Trees — by Rick Valley January 31, 2009
PIJ # 55, 1995 page 24 – 26
Author’s Note: I am a firmly rooted (if transplanted) north-westerner (USA) and this article reflects my years of experience with mostly hardy running bamboos and a few genera of hardy clumping bamboos. My experience with bamboos in other climates is limited, but I feel this information is still useful to readers form different regions.
People tell me bamboo “takes over” and can pierce and destroy pavement, foundations, and ultimately, Western civilization. We call these people bambusaphobes.
Nonetheless, despite its reputation, bamboo is not conquering the world. At the other extreme are people who plant any bamboo they can get anywhere.
Looking carefully at the nature of the plant helps us find a middle ground. Bamboo does like to occupy unused space – edges and clearings. Bamboo is a monocot, and monocots (grasses, lilies, palms, etc) do not have cambium, that is, unlike trees, they do not increase in girth. When a runner finds its way through a crack, unlike a tree root, it will not spread the crack wider over time. Similarly, pipe clogging is not much problem; I have seen cases where a bamboo benefited from a septic tank for years and caused no problem.
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