Species

Dendrocalamus Giganteus

Dendrocalamus giganteus, commonly known as giant bamboo, is a giant tropical and subtropical, dense-clumping species native to Southeast Asia. It is one of the largest bamboo species in the world. It's mostly used in construction, boat mast, bamboo house, water pipes, furniture, paper production and various other uses. While young shoots are used as a vegetable source, the culm sheaths are used to make hats. Dendrocalamus Giganteus take 3-5 years to mature and they grow to a height of 20-30m with a diameter of 20-30 cm.

Bambusa Long Internode

This is a medium sized tropical bamboo native to China. It typically has long internodes (space between the culm nodes) and nearly solid culms at the base.As its name indicates, the internodes are longer than most other bamboos. This makes it useful for crafts and flute-making. The poles are also a good construction and fiber material and are often used for laminated or plywood boards, pulp, charcoal, biofuel, etc. They grow to a height of 10-15 m and diameter of 6-12. It takes upto 2-5 years for the poles to be mature for harvest.

Bambusa Vulgaris Vittata

Bambusa Vulgaris Vittata is a medium sized tropical and subtropical clumping bamboo. It has lemon-yellow culms (stems) with green stripes and dark green leaves. It is one of the most cultivated ornamental bamboos in the tropical world.Commonly and widely planted as an ornamental bamboo, as hedges to border land or as erosion control on slopes or riverbeds. Water from boiled shoots is also used as a medicine. Culms are used as poles in light construction or furniture. In Central America they are often used to make baskets or as tv-antenna posts. They grow up to a height of 10-15m and diameter of 5-8.

Bambusa Vulgaris

Bambusa vulgaris, common bamboo, is an open-clump type bamboo species. Bambusa vulgaris is used for construction of houses, huts, boats, fences, props and furniture; as raw material for paper pulp; shoots are rarely used as a vegetable or as livestock fodder. Stems are not straight, not easy to split, inflexible, thick-walled, and initially strong. The densely tufted culms grow 10–20 m (30–70 ft) high and 4–10 cm (2–4 in) thick.

Dendrocalamus Membranaceus

Dendrocalamus membranaceus is a large, evergreen, clump-forming bamboo with erect, woody stems 10 - 24 metres tall growing from short rhizomes. The stems can be 6 - 10cm in diameter with internodes 22 - 42cm long. The culms are used for building purposes, bamboo board, furniture, basketry, matting and handicrafts.

Bambusa Multiplex

Bambusa vulgaris, common bamboo, is an open-clump type bamboo species. Bambusa vulgaris is used for construction of houses, huts, boats, fences, props and furniture; as raw material for paper pulp; shoots are rarely used as a vegetable or as livestock fodder. Stems are not straight, not easy to split, inflexible, thick-walled, and initially strong. The densely tufted culms grow 10–20 m (30–70 ft) high and 4–10 cm (2–4 in) thick.

Bambusa Bamboo

Bambusa is a large genus of clumping bamboos. Most species of Bambusa are rather large, with numerous branches emerging from the nodes, and one or two much larger than the rest. The branches can be as long as 11 m. Bambusa grows to a full height (18m) in about 5 years. As a windbreak, this bamboo is best planted at 2 to 3 meters between plants.Culms are used for house construction, scaffolding, rafters, thatching and roofing, handicrafts and art objects, basket making, bows and arrows, furniture, floating timber and rafting, cooking utensils and fencing. The raw material of this bamboo is also an important source for paper pulp and panel products.

Bambusa Membranacea

Bambusa is a large genus of clumping bamboos. Most species of Bambusa are rather large, with numerous branches emerging from the nodes, and one or two much larger than the rest.This bamboo grows large and strong. It grows in loose clumps with very straight culms. It's also known as white bamboo. It takes about 3 years before fully mature with a height of 10 - 18 m and diameter of 6 - 10 cm This bamboo is used for building purposes, furniture, bamboo board, agricultural implements, slat traps, matting, chopsticks, basketry, handicrafts, and as props for fruit trees.

Oxytenanthera Abyssinica

Oxytenanthera is a genus of African bamboo. The only recognized species in this genus is Oxytenanthera abyssinica. This species is found widespread across much of sub-Saharan Africa. Traditional uses of Oxytenanthera abyssinica include weaving for basketry, as a building material for local construction, houses and furniture. They grow to a height of 1.8- 3 m high and a diameter of 1.2cm wide.

Bambusa Polymorpha

Bambusa polymorpha also known as Spiny Bamboo or Thorny Bamboo, is a species of clumping bamboo. It is a tall, grayish green colored bamboo species, which grows in thickets consisting of a large number of heavily branched, closely growing culms. It reaches a height of 10–30 m with a maturity period of 5 years. It is used for walls, partitions, troughs, and mats house frames, wattle-and-daub walls, partitions, concrete reinforcement, and ceilings.

Black Bamboo / Phyllostachys Nigra

Phyllostachys nigra, commonly known as black bamboo, is a species of bamboo, native to Hunan Province of China, and is widely cultivated elsewhere. Growing up to 25 m tall by 30 cm broad, it forms clumps of slender arching canes which turn black after two or three seasons.Black Bamboo can take a year or two to fully settle and they need to be watered well until they are established. Black bamboo can also be harvested and used for making some lovely arts, crafts and furniture.

Cephalostachyum Pergracile

Cephalostachyum pergracile is an evergreen Bamboo growing to 10 m (32ft) by 6 m (19ft) at a slow rate The multipurpose canes are widely harvested, used for weaving, construction, domestic utensils, mats, paper fibre, shingles and fishing poles. Food uses include the making of carrying containers, brewing, serving and cooking vessels, especially for boiling and serving rice.

Dendrocalamus Asper

Dendrocalamus asper, also known as giant bamboo, or dragon bamboo, is a giant tropical, dense-clumping species. The stems grow fast, adding 10 cm (4 in) or more in height per day and, when mature, are 20 to 30 m (65 to 100 ft) tall with a diameter of 8 to 20 cm.

Dendrocalamus Sinicus

Dendrocalamus sinicus, also known as “Giant Dragon Bamboo”, is the largest bamboo in the world. It has the tallest and biggest culms of any known bamboo species which can reach up to 46 meters in height, and up to 37 cm in diameter. Dendrocalamus sinicus is a very fine timber, and an important raw material for building houses, furniture, handicrafts, and producing paper pulp. Since this bamboo is very big, it is often used for fetching water. A single internode is widely used as a stool. Dendrocalamus asper poles are used as a building material and structural timber for heavy construction such as houses and bridges.

Dendrocalamus Barbatus

This is a relatively small-growing species of Dendrocalamus. Leaves are very small and it may reach 30' tall. Dendrocalamus barbatus bamboo can reach a height of up to 15 m. The stalk thickness of this giant bamboo is up to 15 cm. color is green.

Dendrocalamus Latiflorus

Dendrocalamus latiflorus also is a giant tropical and subtropical clumping species. This bamboo has sweet edible shoots and is often used in light construction. A 1 - 2 year-old culm can produce 5 - 10 shoots weighing 3 - 5 kg[ 310 ]. Average young shoot production per clump increases in the first 5 years after planting from 30 kg in the 2nd year to 60 kg in the 3rd year to 80 kg in the 4th year, to a maximum of about 100 kg in the 5th year.Culms used for structural timber (of medium quality) for house and temporary construction, agricultural implements, water pipes, basketry, rafts for fishing, woven wares, furniture, chopsticks, bamboo boards, and paper making.

Dendrocalamus Strictus

Dendrocalamus strictus is a bamboo species belonging to the Dendrocalamus genus. Dendrocalamus strictus is a medium-sized bamboo with culms of about 8-20 m tall and 2.5-8 cm in diameter. The internodes are 30-45 cm long and thick-walled. Culms are hollow when growing under humid conditions, but nearly solid under dry conditions. It is extensively used as raw material in paper mills and also for a variety of purposes such as light construction, furniture, musical instruments, bamboo board, mats, sticks, agricultural implements, rafts, baskets, woven wares and household utensils. Young shoots are edible and used as food.

Dendrocalamus Yunnanensis

Dendrocalamus yunnanensis, a giant bamboo 20 m - 30 m high and 10 cm - 20 cm diameter. A very decorative bamboo with dense foliage. Well suited for construction and paper manufacture.

Bamboo Products

Construction

Bamboo can be utilized as a building material for scaffolding, bridges, houses and buildings. Bamboo, like wood, is a natural composite material with a high strength-to-weight ratio useful for structures. Bamboo's strength-to-weight ratio is similar to timber, and its strength is generally similar to a strong softwood or hardwood timber.

Textile

Bamboo textile is any cloth, yarn or clothing made from bamboo fibres. In recent years different technologies have been developed that allow bamboo fibre to be used for a wide range of textile and fashion applications. Examples include clothing such as shirt tops, pants, and socks for adults and children as well as bedding such as sheets and pillow covers. Bamboo yarn can also be blended with other textile fibres such as hemp or spandex.

Flooring and furniture

Bamboo is of recent being widely adopted by different sectors in the economy. From being used as floors on public transport vehicles to being used for furniture in homes today. In the logistics sector, eco containers with bamboo flooring are being used to export and import cargo across continents and this is in a way promoting green logistics.

Bamboo crafts.

Bamboo Crafts are ornamental items used to enhance a place. They range from Traditional crafts using bamboo as raw material. Rural people in general are both producers and consumers of this product. Bamboo has manifold uses, its low cost making it the primary material for articles of everyday use such as stools, mats, baskets, traps as well as decorative items.

FAQs

Bamboos are part of the grass family Poaceae. There are 1642 known species, which occupy a broad range of environments across the world, largely in tropical to warm temperate ecosystems across Africa, Asia and Central and South America. In 2010, the Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that bamboo covered over 30 million hectares of land across the world.

Although bamboo is technically a grass plant, it can grow up to 35 metres tall and 30 centimetres in diameter. Bamboos also include some of the fastest-growing plants in the world: certain species grow up to 91 cm a day. Its fast growth, quick maturity (within four to seven years) and wood-like nature make certain species of bamboo an excellent material for housing and scaffolding. Since the 1990s, new technologies have also enabled the use of bamboo as a source of paper, packaging, furniture and fabric.

Aside from its socio-economic benefits, bamboo is a key part of biodiverse ecosystems. The giant panda, red panda, mountain gorilla, bale monkey, and the greater bamboo lemur are just some of the animals that rely on bamboo for food and shelter. Bamboo’s extensive root systems mean that it binds soil and can raise the water table, making it an important part of anti-desertification projects around the world.

This will depend on bamboo management; you can expect snakes in an unmanaged bamboo plantation with a lot of undecomposed litter and overgrown & unharvested clumps. 

Bamboo rhizomes are shallow feeders which do not go deep in the soil and there is nutrient replenishing from the litter. Moreso bamboo acts as a nitrogen fixer and helps increase soil fertility. 

Some bamboo can be invasive, especially running bamboo/monopodial but the majority of bamboo sold by Divine Bamboo is clumping (sympodial) which is not invasive. 

It takes 4years to harvest/ maturity 

Bamboo does not do well in waterlogged conditions such as boggy or wetland areas and therefore does not like to be planted where they will be overwatered. Bamboo requires well-drained loamy soils for optimum growth.

Did you know that bamboo roots are able to store carbon sequestered from the atmosphere, well if you didn't here is how?

A mature bamboo plant is able to absorb carbon and release more than 30%-40% oxygen to the atmosphere than several mature trees combined. This makes it a carbon absorption sink and a source of clean fresh oxygen. All the greenhouse gasses emitted in the atmosphere absorbed by the leaves are then stored in the roots and biomass. Because of this, bamboo is an effective way of mitigating global warming.  Bamboo is known for its ability to have a high survival rate in tropical climate areas. However, growing bamboo has been fully adopted by both native and urban societies. This is mainly because Bamboo as a plant has highly limited depletion of trees because of the number of clums a single shoot produces over the years. Majority of the beneficiaries of bamboo have resorted to using it as a fuel source and this in the long run controls the rate at which world's tree cover and natural forests are being misused or cut down. 

As communities start adopting the use of bamboo, they will have unknowingly contributed to curbing the harsh effects of global warming that are as a result of deforestation.

If you are living in a partially plain land or are living in an area prone to erosion, think of bamboo as your next step to turning things around. Bamboo is one of the tree species that not only generate a livelihood benefit for people but also restores land. Bamboos have a great route system especially the giant bamboo (Dendrocalamus asper) that grips soil and this root network is able to control all aspects of erosion from landslides to floods through holding soil particles together and absorbing the excess water. Due to the very many leaves that come from the clumps, the broad thick leaves are able to reduce and minimize the impact on the soil during a heavy downpour.

We have a total of 12 bamboo species with 4 commercial plantation species that is  Oxytenanthera abyssinica (Solid bamboo), bambusa vulgaris (green bamboo) and  Dendrocalamus Asper (Giant Rough bamboo). Other species include bambusa membranacea,  Dendrocalamus Giganteus, Cephalostachyum pergracile, Bambusa vulgaris Vittata,  Dendrocalamus membranacea Cv grandis, Dendrocalamus barbartus, Dendrocalamus sinicus, dendrocalamus igonensis, bambusa longinternode. 

The environmentally friendly nature of bamboo products depends very much on the product itself. In general, bamboo products can provide low-carbon alternatives to a number of materials, including steel, cement and plastic. The range of bamboo products is increasing every year, and includes cladding, decking, flooring, panels and beams. Bamboo is being trialled for use in everything from drainage pipes and shipping container flooring to wind turbine blades and bullet train fuselage.

Some bamboo products are made using synthetic additives, such as glues and coatings, or processing chemicals, for example in viscose- and pulp-making. These are toxic or not biodegradable, and mean that the end product cannot be recycled in line with the bio-based economy. The amount of glue or chemicals used depends on the type of product.

However, even when these chemicals and glues are taken into account, European industrial bamboo products (flooring, panels, beams, cladding, decking) have a lower ‘eco-cost’ (environmental burden, based on a specific methodology) than other materials, even FSC-certified hardwoods.

The search for bio-based additives and chemicals, such as soy, lignin or bagasse, which can be made in a cost-competitive way, will make a crucial difference to creating zero-waste bamboo products. There is currently significant investment and research in product development activities by a number of manufacturers. In 2019 INBAR published a report on bamboo’s potential in the circular economy, which covers the latest innovations in a number of bamboo materials.

This depends on the species but generally bamboo is used for construction, laminated boards,  furniture, flooring, cutlery, and bamboo shoots like kamalea around mountain Elgon are a  source of food, bamboo can also be used for cooking inform of bamboo charcoal / briquettes  or firewood (especially Oxytenethra abyssinica).

Yes, although for better efficiency bamboo charcoal is usually crushed and densified to make  bamboo charcoal briquettes which can be used for cooking on charcoal stoves. 

Oxytenanthera abyssinica and Strictus bamboo but also other species can perform depending  on the management 

We would recommend oxytenanthera abyssinica due to its solid nature. Dendrocalamus  asper will be a second alternative because of its massive biomass. 

200 bamboo seedlings including 39 seedlings for beating up/mortality during transit at a  spacing of 5metres by 5 metres. 

This will depend on the soil characteristics, especially fertility, so there is a need to do a site survey  by the company prior to planting to determine whether the site necessitates fertilization. If  available we recommend the addition of organic manure to boost bamboo growth. 

Bamboo matures in 4 years and you keep earning every year after that period. You expect to  earn a minimum of 4 million per year. 

During the first few weeks, water the plant regularly. Soak the soil and spray the leaves.  Bamboo likes water but loves drainage. Water heavily but make sure that you are allowing  your planting site time to drain between watering cycles. This time can vary depending upon  time of year, soil composition, slope, etc. 

During the first few weeks, water the plant regularly. Soak the soil and spray the leaves.  Bamboo likes water but loves drainage. Water heavily but make sure that you are allowing  your planting site time to drain between watering cycles. This time can vary depending upon  time of year, soil composition, slope, etc. 

Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants in the world. This makes it particularly suitable as a tool for carbon sequestration. Given its fast growth rate, bamboo can be harvested regularly, creating a large number of durable products which store carbon over several years, in addition to the carbon stored in the plant itself. Over time, this means that bamboo can sequester more carbon than some tree plantations.

This is particularly important when bamboo’s potential to create durable products is taken into account. Industrial bamboo products, including flooring, decking, cladding, panels and beams, are long-lasting, recyclable, and can replace a variety of emissions-intensive materials, such as PVC, steel, aluminium and concrete. Due to their hardness, dimensional stability and aesthetic appearance, bamboo could also be a favourable substitute for hardwoods, even FSC-certified ones, in terms of carbon footprint and eco-costs.

Bamboo can also provide a sustainable source of bioenergy. It can be converted into charcoal or briquettes for cooking, or into gas or pellets for electricity and heat generation. Because it regrows quickly and matures faster than most types of tree, bamboo can provide a renewable alternative to timber fuel, on which many people around the world are still reliant for their cooking and heating. It can also provide an important source of biomass energy in countries with ambitious renewable energy targets, as a plant which grows on marginal soils and does not need to compete with agriculturally productive land.

Finally, bamboo and rattan can help communities and individuals adapt to the negative impacts of climate change: as a resilient housing material; as a nature-based tool to help prevent desertification; and as a sustainable, year-round source of livelihood for millions of people around the world. Self-replenishing, locally growing, and easy to process without the need for large machines or capital investment, bamboo offers rural communities more security in a changing climate.