URBAN CULTURAL LANDSCAPES & BAMBOO

  


THE UTILITY OF BAMBOO IN URBAN AND PERI-URBAN 
CULTURAL LANDSCAPES


Firstly, it has to be said that 'bamboo' has been claimed to be the most useful plant on the planet. It is a bold claim, but it is an extraordinary and useful plant and one that has been largely overlooked in Australia and particularly so in Tasmania. 

Bamboo's advocates are regularly told that: 
•...Bamboo is an invasive weed. However, bamboo's detractors rarely identify which of the 14,000 plus species they speak of; 
•...Bamboo will not grow in Tasmania. However, that may be true for a large number of the TROPICAL & SUBTROPICAL species, but there are many varieties that perform well in Tasmania as they do in similar temperate elsewhere. 
•...Bamboo does not belong in Tasmania. Well to the extent that it might be true it is also true of most of the food plants grown in Tasmania along with a large variety of fibre producing plants and a great many deciduous trees grown for their amenity. 

Advocates for bamboo usually need to start their endorsement with a reminder that the plant is an outstanding plant that in most Eurocentric mindsets its at the very least misunderstood. It must be said that this is all too often spiked with blind prejudice – sometimes driven by an ideology. The reasoning behind this assertion needs to be discussed but not here or now as it is outside the purposefulness of this paper. Nonetheless, the two sites linked to this paper are expansive in their advocacy for bamboo and the plant's utilities. 

Geoff Pyne, Dec 1/12/24 ... The Green Revolution: How Bamboo is Changing the Game "Bamboo is an amazingly versatile plant with many uses. Plants are found all over the world and are highly resistant to heat, drought, UV light, insects, pollution, and more. They are also durable and can withstand some of the world’s harshest climates. 

Bamboo is often used to make paper, food, clothes, and even building materials. Bamboo can be used to build homes in some areas where other materials are scarce. The plants are also extremely safe for construction because they contain no carbon. 

The plants can also be used to make clothes, furniture, baskets, food, paper, flooring, building materials, and more!" 

Against this kind of backgrounding the case for proactively including appropriate species of bamboo in Tasmanian urban, peri-urban and many rural landscapes is strong, compelling even. Despite the plant's detractors' negative narratives and often distorted assertions the case for proactively planting bamboo in urban cultural landscapes resonates quite loudly. 

What are some of these? 
• Bambusa textilis Gracilis, Bambusa Oldhamii, Bambusa eutuldoides‘, Bambusa multiplex, Fargesia, Fargesia, Bambusa ‘Compacta’, Himalayacalamus ‘porcatus’, Bambusa Chungii barbelletta .... all test grown in Tasmania and all are clumping varieties. 

THE BAMBOO MYTH: Bamboo is NOT the invasive weed that it is claimed to be in every case! Not quite so, Some of bamboo's 14,000 plus species can be invasive but not always true of the species that will grow in Tasmania cool temperate climate. There are 'running bamboos' that may have a place in the urban circumstance but these species need to planted in 'contained locations or containers' especially so in urban gardens. Among the running species that need very careful planning when being planted are: Chimonobambusa marmorea (Marbled Bamboo)... Chimonobambusa quadrangularis (Square Bamboo) ... Phyllostachys heterocycla 'Pubescens' (Moso Bamboo - grown for its timber & shoots) ... Phyllostachys nigra (Running Black Bamboo) ... Pleioblastus viridistriatus (Dwarf Green Stripe Bamboo)

Nonetheless there is no longer any doubt that urban cultural landscapes and urban cum peri-urban landscaping need to be 'GREENER' and by design. Carefully selected and managed well, bamboo has a place Tasmania's cultural landscaping – urban and rural. 

In Launceston there is utility in planting bamboo to offer:
  • Shade and screening in streetscapes; and 
  • Stability on steep slopes; and 
  • Assistance in mitigating against erosion where needed; and 
  • Wind brakes where needed; and 
  • In remediating decimated land such as landfill sites; and 
  • Access to a fibre and food resource. 
PLUS and quite importantly when included in urban CULTURALlandsaping – and importantly in street plantings – this offers an opportunity to demonstrate and market bamboo's utility. In the context of bamboo in the role of a supplementary cum complementary timber cum fibre resource bamboo has much to offer. 

If better understood in an ecologically sustainable network of networks relevant to forestry endevours and enterprises in peri-urban and rural landscapes bamboo would be beneficial without question given the evidence already to hand.

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