Q&A: Is there such a thing as Amazon bamboo?

An interesting question was posed to us this week: is there such a thing as Amazon bamboo? The Amazon is home to more than two-thirds of the world's population of plant species, and that includes bamboo.

There are over 1200 different species of bamboo in the world and many of these are native to the Asian continent. The one species most often cited as in the Amazon is "Bengal bamboo." The life span of this particular species is 40 years and it is also referred to has "Calcutta cane."

This bamboo can be used for making a variety of useful objects, such as furniture, baskets, fishing rods and musical instruments. In many ways, it serves a very similar purpose as a material that the "Moso bamboo" does--the type of bamboo used by bambu to create our products.

"Moso bamboo" (Phyllostachys edulis) is one of the giant timber bamboos from China. It can even often grow to  more than 90 feet tall and is commonly used for manufacturing. Moso bamboo can even be found in various parts of the United States as well.  The use of Moso bamboo allows us to produce our wide range of products, including our popular compostable dinnerware.