Bamboo Shoots
Bamboo is just one of the many plants that appear eager to burst out through the roof of the Palm House. Standing at the bottom of these stems and looking upwards you get some feeling of what the world looks like from an ant's perspective.
The feeling of raw, vegetable vigour in the Palm House is reinforced by the sugar cane. It grows close to a tall, white board. On the board someone has marked the height of the cane on various dates. The marks are 30 to 40 cm apart - but the dates are consecutive. These remarkable plants can grow by 30 cm or more in a day!
As you look at these pictures think of this:
The majority of the carbon in any plant comes from the air. It started out as carbon dioxide absorbed from by the leaves. They have taken a colourless, odourless gas and turned it into the substance that now excites our senses using just water and the energy of sunlight.
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- Document: bamboo.htm
Version: 1.12
Date: 1999/07/28
Author: R.F. Harvey