Bamboo
-By Michael Poon
-SBI3U
Reproductive System of Bamboo
In plants, asexual reproduction are also called vegetative reproduction. Bamboos can reproduce asexually by producing rhizomes, under ground stems from which new bamboo arise. There is a lot of benefits of plants reproduce asexually. Here is the benefits below:
- the plants does not have to produce specialized reproductive structures. These makes the reproduction takes less energy and produce new individual more quickly.
- Only on plant is nedded. The plant does not depend on the presence of another individual in order to reproduce.
- The plantlets have a higher survival rate.
on the other hand, some species can also reproduce by the flowers. But only some of species and the flowers of bamboo are really sensitive to the environment. The climate and the geographical location can impact the flowering and the seasons of flowering. Thus, the main propagation of Bamboo is vegetative reproduction.
Bamboo belongs to the Poaceae (or Gramineae) family under the monocotyledons group of which most members have one cotyledon, or embryonic leaf, in their seeds. Grown bamboo has culms hardened as xylem which can be processed for economic use. Culms, referring to the hollow stems with nodes, are composed of vascular bundle which make culms look straight, but resilient in nature. Lack of the structure for making secondary growth makes bamboo grow most in height with little girth expansion. Grown bamboo isn't much wider than little shoots in girth because bamboo's growth is focused on lengthening of vertical cells rather than cell proliferation. Most bamboo cells are vertical and few are horizontal. So, bamboo is vulnerable for being “chopped off.” Comparatively, “easy process” is one of bamboo's advantages.
The way of Bamboo reproduce is shown below.
This is a diagram of running Bamboo. As you can see, the rhizomes beneath the ground are growing new culm. After months, the new culm will developed as a Bamboo. On the other hand, the rhizomes which hide underground will keep growing and keep spreading in order to grow more new culm.
Other than that, people also can grow bamboo in a different way. We can cut the culm and plant it to the other places. The culm will start to grow a new root and bottom of the culm will grow another new rhizome. Thus the rhizomes will start to spread again and grow new culm.
Life Cycle of Bamboo
In the Brief description, Bamboo is a angiosperm plant. The diagram below shows the life cycle of angiosperms.
Ecological Role of Bamboo
In a forest, Bamboo plays an important role. There are two main fields that bamboo plays an improtant role on - natural environment and human society.
Natural Environment
A bamboo can form a closely woven root and rhizome underground. Which means that these can effectively hold the soil. These can prevent landslides that causes by heavy rain and help protecting the plants surround the bamboo being destroy by the rain. Other than that, Bamboo can also Protect the riverbanks, prevent landslides, accumulate litterfall and help moisture retention. Also Bamboo has several major ecological functions such as air-purifying, buzz-abating, shock-absorption, and environment embellishment. Experiment shows that the soil water of the watershed area inside well-developed bamboo forest is more active in penetrating vertically than diffusing horizontally. In other words, bamboo helps water penetrate into soil and prevent soil scour. It makes good shield to avoid breakdown or sliding of the forestland.
Human Society
Bamboo is in an important position in Asian culture. Especially in Japan and Taiwan, people make intensive application of bamboo from daily necessities of baskets, plates, to houses, boats, and ritual items to be used at wedding or funeral ceremonies. Bamboo also makes necessary items for customs rituals.