ABSTRACT
Bamboo is intrinsically a grass and cannot escape its condition. Sometimes considered to be a tree due to its significant height (sometimes 30 or 40m), a dimension not always attained by woody plants, it remains a grass. As such, and with no outside intervention, it renews itself yearly and remains evergreen. Grasses do not age; they grow, spread, survive adverse weather conditions, then die and renew after several years, often unremarked. Bamboo does not register a memory in its fibres, as is the case for true ligneous plants; it disappears without ever achieving the venerability usually conferred by age and years. Although the Vietnamese designate it using the term “tree (‘cây tre’)”, it is not truly a tree, either by its structure or its condition. It dies after several years and is replaced by its numerous young shoots.
