A green alternative to plastic? Giant pandas’ favorite food is actually so precious!

Review expert: Hu Jiayu, Master of Botany, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Recently, news about the national treasure giant panda has been very popular, and people's attention to giant pandas has also increased rapidly. Most people are puzzled when they see the pandas crunching bamboos. It is understandable that bamboo shoots are fresh and delicious, but how can the grown bamboos be delicious when they look dry? In fact, the whole bamboo is a treasure. Whether it is bamboo leaves, bamboo stems or bamboo shoots, they are rich in various nutrients. It's just that humans can only eat bamboo shoots, and the rest of the bamboo can only be left for giant pandas to enjoy.

Source: pexcel

Is bamboo a grass or a tree?

Bamboo, like pandas, is native to China. There are three major distribution areas of bamboo forests in the world: Asia-Pacific, Americas and Africa. China has half of all bamboo species, and it can be said to be the "hometown of bamboo."

Speaking of bamboo, I would think of the dense bamboo forests that often appear in martial arts dramas, with bamboos standing tall and straight into the sky, like towering trees. Because of its tall and upright structure, and the high wood content of bamboo stem fibers, it is understandable that bamboo is mistaken for trees.

Source: pexcel

However, bamboo is not a tree . In terms of classification, it is more closely related to grass and belongs to the Gramineae family like rice, sorghum, wheat, corn, etc. Bamboo is a perennial herb. The difference between bamboo and woody plants lies in its stem structure. The stem of bamboo is segmented, hollow and closed. The vascular bundle inside is condensed into one with the cambium. The vascular bundle is arranged from the inside to the outside and from loose to dense, which makes bamboo grow upright and has strong toughness . Woody plants become thicker and taller through cell division of the cambium tissue.

Source: Baidu Encyclopedia

In addition, bamboo also has underground stems similar to fibrous roots - bamboo whips. The bamboo whips buried underground have hard and sharp root tips that can pierce the solid soil and spread everywhere. In spring, they emerge from the soil and form the bamboo shoots we are familiar with. The bamboo shoots gradually grow and form new bamboo. Bamboo whips can absorb and store a lot of nutrients, so bamboo grows fast and has a strong reproductive capacity.

Image source: pixbay

The tallest bamboo species is Dendrocalamus giganteus, which can reach a height of 30 meters. The tallest species is Phyllostachys edulis, which can reach a height of 20 meters.

Since it is a grass plant, bamboo can also bloom, but bamboo has a long lifespan and blooms very late, taking at least 30 years to bloom, and usually only blooms once in its lifetime , so it is rare to see.

For plants, flowering consumes a lot of nutrients, and they die after bearing fruit. The same is true for bamboo. The Classic of Mountains and Seas records: "Bamboo blooms, but withers in the same year." After bamboo blooms, it withers and dies the following year.

Source: Baidu Encyclopedia

As mentioned earlier, bamboos spread and reproduce through underground stems. A bamboo forest is equivalent to a bamboo and multiple branches. When one prospers, all prosper, and when one suffers, all suffer. Therefore , when bamboos bloom, the entire bamboo forest blooms. After that, the bamboo leaves wither and fall off in large numbers, and the bamboo stalks turn yellow, and finally die in large numbers . The incident of large-scale bamboos dying after flowering has a very big impact, and it also caused a lot of suffering for giant pandas. In the 1970s, there were many large-scale flowering incidents of arrow bamboos, which caused giant pandas to lose their food source and the number of surviving pandas dropped sharply. Most bamboos are perennial and bloom once, and a few can bloom multiple times. For example, the flower bamboo that blooms every year does not die immediately after flowering. The flowering cycle of different types of bamboo is different and not fixed. If the environmental quality declines and disasters such as insect pests and drought occur, bamboos will bloom early and produce bamboo rice . Bamboo rice is rich in fat and nutrients, which easily attracts animals such as mice, causing rodent infestations, and even famine and plague.

Source: Baidu Encyclopedia

Therefore, the flowering of bamboo does mean environmental deterioration to some extent. Once the bamboo forest dies, it will cause serious ecological impact. So the folk saying "When the bamboo blooms, move immediately" still makes sense.

Is it possible to use bamboo instead of plastic?

As a renewable plant resource, bamboo plays a huge role in regulating and maintaining the ecological environment and is also of great help to human life.

Bamboo can produce delicious spring bamboo shoots, bamboo leaves can be used as leaves for rice dumplings, bamboo poles can be made into various bamboo mats, bamboo chairs, bamboo curtains, etc. for cooling off in summer, and the bamboo charcoal produced by burning can be made into activated carbon with adsorption and purification functions. It can be said that bamboo is a treasure from head to toe.

Source: Baidu Encyclopedia

Now, bamboo has been given new expectations and is expected to shoulder the responsibility of sustainable development. In order to achieve green and sustainable development and solve the problem of plastic pollution, the Chinese government has issued a "Bamboo instead of plastic" initiative to the International Bamboo and Rattan Organization to promote the use of bamboo products, reduce the use of plastics from the root, and reduce plastic pollution. At present, my country has the richest bamboo resources in the world and the largest bamboo industry. In recent years, it has continuously promoted technological innovation in the bamboo industry, strengthened manufacturing technology, and strived to realize "Bamboo instead of plastic" as soon as possible. The "Bamboo instead of plastic" initiative is both exciting and worrying. Plastic products have been used for a long time, and the "Plastic Restriction Order" has been issued for a long time. Is "Bamboo instead of plastic" feasible? Although the current market share of bamboo products is low, "Bamboo instead of plastic" is beneficial and feasible. First, compared with plastic products, bamboo has the advantage of being degradable and there is no pollution problem; second, bamboo has the ability to absorb carbon dioxide and fix carbon, which helps to reduce the impact of the greenhouse effect; third, bamboo grows fast and can be mature in 3 to 5 years. If properly protected, it can be used continuously, which greatly meets the requirements of green and sustainable development. "Replacing plastic with bamboo" takes into account both ecological and economic benefits, has great development prospects, and is conducive to promoting harmonious coexistence between man and nature. At this point, do you have a full understanding of bamboo? A bamboo has so many functions, from feeding the national treasure giant panda to regulating and protecting the ecological environment. Of course, protecting the environment is not enough with bamboo alone. As a member of the earth's home, let us all start with ourselves and contribute to the cause of environmental protection together.