Bamboos

Bamboos are herbaceous plants of the Poaceae family as corn or oat. But they are particular Poaceae because some species can reach 40 meters high under the tropics and can a 1-meter per day growth!

About 1 500 bamboo species gathered in some fifty genera have been registered. In natural conditions bamboos grow almost in Asia and South America but some of them grow in Africa, Australia and Madagascar.Many species grow in mountainous areas at various altitudes (up to more than 3 000 meters in the Himalayas) and in hot and wet places.In places where it naturally grows, people uses often bamboo for build, nutrition, paper making...

Many species grow in tropical climate and we have to cultivate them in greenhouses but Chinese, Himalayan and Japanese species are hardy and more and more used in the ornamental culture.

Bamboos spread making rhizomes under the ground surface and make in spring, summer or autumn, depending on the species, new growths that will give new stems called culms.

Some bamboos may be quite invading, but numerous species are caespitose and are becoming widespread in the gardens.

With 70 species, the bamboo garden of the Lyon Botanical Garden presents a large glimpse of the different kinds of bamboos: green, yellow or black stems, striped or striated stems, green or variegated leaves, 30 cm high dwarf bamboos or 10 meters giant bamboos.

The bamboo garden is located in the open-air part of the botanical garden, in front of the alpine garden. Most of the species we have are presented there: Phyllostachys from China, Sasa from Japan, Fargesia from the Himalayas, Thamnocalamus from South Africa… As a complement 9 tropical species are presented in the big greenhouses (Dendrocalamus, Dinochloa, Bambusa, Drepanostachyum….)