''Bambusa balcooa'' is a clumping

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, bu ...

native from the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

Indo-China Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

Description

''Bambusa balcooa'' is a very large, thick-walled, clumping or

sympodial Sympodial growth is a bifurcating branching pattern where one branch develops more strongly than the other, resulting in the stronger branches forming the primary shoot and the weaker branches appearing laterally. A sympodium, also referred to a ...

bamboo: growing up to a height of , and a thickness of .

Uses

The length and strength of ''Bambusa balcooa'' make it a useful material for the construction industry. Furthermore, it is a drought-resistant species with low rainfall requirements and can reach yields upwards of . ''B. balcooa'' has recently gained popularity in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

as the species of choice for commercial plantations. Although not native to that country, it is the most prominent "giant" bamboo that is accepted as a naturalized species, since its introduction into South Africa during the 1600s. Government tenders were awarded for trials and studies to determine the feasibility of large-scale cultivation of bamboo in South Africa. However, after several years of research on the ''Bambusa balcooa'' species by industry leaders such as Camille Rebelo, it was a group called

Ecoplanet Bamboo Group Winner of the U.S. Department of State's 2014 Award for Corporate Excellence, founded in 2010 by Troy Wiseman and Camille Rebelo, EcoPlanet Bamboo has pioneered the industrialization of bamboo as an alternative fiber for timber manufacturing indu ...

that became the first entity to successfully grow the species at commercial scale. More recently the South African government and other corporations such as ECDC have began to realize the true economic potential of this

giant bamboo Giant bamboo is a common name for several large species of bamboo and may refer to: * Large species in the genus ''Bambusa'' include: ** "Giant timber bamboo" (''Bambusa oldhamii''), a large (to 20 m) bamboo species originating from Taiwan ** ''Bamb ...

in agricultural and forestry sectors.

References

____________________ {{Taxonbar, from=Q648271 balcooa Flora of the Indian subcontinent Flora of Indo-China Plants described in 1832