Bamboo is amazing. We don’t want to ruin our list with spoilers so we’ll start out with the basics. The flowering plant that belongs to the grass family Poaceae that can be found in Asia, Australia, North and South American, and Sub-Saharan Africa. It grows wildly in the right area, with over 1500 species spread throughout tropical climate. Bamboo is also one of the most useful plants on the planet. It can be used in the building industry as scaffolding, in medicine, or like our SpiffySocks, in clothing wear. So without further ado, here are 10 interesting facts about bamboo:
- There is a certain type of bamboo that can grow as fast as 35 inches in a single day or 1.5 inches per hour. That makes it the fastest growing plant and makes it super sustainable. If you put the plant in front of you, it would grow before your eyes.
- Bamboo has a stronger structure than steel and it is widely used in the construction industry, especially in asia. Other than that, bamboo is used frequently as a material for floors, furniture, and walls.
- Bamboo is often used in Asian cuisine as part of a stir fry or a soup. Younger shoots of bamboo contain a toxin called taxiphyllin that needs to be cooked at a high temperature before consumption.
- Bamboo releases 30% more oxygen into the atmosphere and absorbs more carbon dioxide compared to other plants. Because of these features, bamboo greatly decreases amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and fights climate change. What makes bamboo better than most other plants is that it does not require fertilizers for optimal growth. Its own discarded leaves provide enough fertilizer for itself.
- Bamboo fibers have natural antibacterial properties so it makes a great material for clothing.. Bamboo and cotton were tested for how much bacteria they killed over a 24-hour period, and the bamboo killed nearly all of the bacteria, while the cotton did not kill any at all. That’s what makes SpiffySocks so wonderful!
- It is also a natural deodorizer. There are many products on the market today that use bamboo charcoal as the main ingredient to help deodorize noxious smells. For example, bamboo diapers is starting to catch on as it is natural and soft for the baby’s skin.
- Thomas Edison used bamboo discovered that a carbonized bamboo filament in a light bulb could last over 1,200 hours. Edison originally create light bulbs using a carbon filament made from cotton, linen thread, wood splints, or paper. However, they found that the carbon bamboo filament was the best material, which led to the start of large-scale manufactured light bulbs in the year 1880. Amazing!
- Flowers of bamboo are rarely seen in the wild. Some species of bamboo develop flowers after 65 or 120 years. Yes, they can live to be over a hundred years old! Interesting fact about flowering is that all plants of one bamboo species develop flowers at the same time, no matter where they are located in the world. It’s like they have telepathic abilities!
- In Asia, some liquor manufacturers are using bamboo trunks to age their spirits, instead of traditional oak barrels. The alcohol is injected into the bamboo trunk and then left to mix with the natural juices of the bamboo. A bonus: The sap of the bamboo is considered to be a traditional medicine, and has been used to improve lung health and as a general detoxifier.
- Bamboo fibers used in our SpiffySocks subscription are super comfortable, as they are twice as soft as cotton and are perfect for sensitive skin as the eco-friendly bamboo fibers are gentler than most synthetically created fibers.