''Bambusa balcooa'' is a clumping

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...

native from the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

Indo-China Mainland Southeast Asia (historically known as Indochina and the Indochinese Peninsula) 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 th ...

Description

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

sympodial In botany, 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, als ...

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 Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

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 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 begun to realize the true economic potential of this giant bamboo in agricultural and forestry sectors.

References

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