BambooGrass grasses, the grass family, have provided civilization with abundant food and many other uses throughout history. The three most economically important plants in the world are grasses: wheat, corn, and rice. Humankind probably would not have survived if it were not for herbs. The subfamily Bambusoideae is certainly no exception. These are bamboos. Consisting of 75 genera and over 1000 species, these unique plants have played a diverse and important role in the development of society, as we know it today. Morphology The bamboo plant is built with a system of segmented axes. This is represented by regular internodal lengths and prominent nodes (McClure 10). They resemble telescopic antennas, but with a constant diameter. The culm is the above ground stem, this is what is used for most of the many applications. The culm is woody and hollow or solid, however most species have some degree of hollowness. The length and thickness of the culm vary greatly between species. Some species can reach 130 feet tall and be more than a foot in diameter: they have been reported to grow nearly two inches every hour (Hanke 291). In fact it would be impressive to see, certainly not like the weed most of us are familiar with. Branches, also segmented. they arise from the culm. On the branches there are leaves, with petioles. The fact that the leaves have petioles helps distinguish bamboos from other grasses. The leaves and young shoots are the parts eaten by pandas. The Panda does not feed on any other plant or food source. Only bamboos keep them strong. We'll talk about it later. New culms, or shoots, are produced from an extensive rhizome system. Simply put, rhizomes are modified stems, which usually grow underground (Fig. 1). The rhizomes cause the "tufted" growth habit exhibited by bamboos. By “clump growth” we mean culms that grow close together, like a “clump of grass,” so to speak. There are basically two types of rhizomes. pachymorphic and leptomorphic. Most species have both, to a greater or lesser extent. The pachymorphic rhizomes are very compact. They are associated with autumn growth and produce a dense clump of culms. The leptomorph rhizomes, associated with spring growth, spread a little further. of the pachymorph, in some cases much more. In other words, they are responsible for the lateral growth of a given clump, or clump, of a bamboo species.