Bamboo is known as one of the most versatile, sustainable and natural products in the world. There are thousands of species of Bamboo, some ranging from 10 centimetres tall to over 30 metres tall at full maturity.
Bamboo is a group of woody, perennial grasses in the true grass family Poaceae, in which there are 12,000 species of grass.
The number of species of Bamboo is still ongoing research, however the most updated number we can provide is from the List of Bambusoideae species based on accepted taxa from Kew’s GrassBase. This list provides extensive research into the species of grass in the world. In this list you can find the Bambusoideae (bamboo) species of Poaceae and it names as many as we know.
From our research, it appears there is over 1,660 different species of Bamboo.
These 1660 Bamboo species originate from all across the world, the majority grown in Asia, in particular Southeast Asia. Bamboo has been found to grow natively in a variety of different regions, such as Australia, North America, South America, and Africa. It doesn't seem as if much (if any) Bamboo is grown in Europe and especially not anywhere near Antarctica. China is the leading country in growing Bamboo, with India following as the worlds second largest grower of Bamboo species.
Some of the smallest Bamboo plants only end up reaching heights of 10 centimetres or less, whereas some of the largest Bamboo plants have been recorded to reach heights of over 30 metres.
Bamboo evolved only 30 to 40 million years ago, after the demise of the dinosaurs.
In conclusion, there are thousands of species of Bamboo. However, only approximately 100 are used for commercial and construction purposes as these are the mass produced species.
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