2007-08-26 Much belatedly, and with the help of Bill Hollenbeck, the ABS Web site now accepts credit cards on-line for new and renewal membership fees.
2007-08-21 National Public Radio (NPR) has had three programs about bamboo in the recent past.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I ought to say that my daughter-in-law (Joy Ma) is one half of the NPR Bureau in Beijing, and I'm proud of her.
2007-07-25 The Handweavers Guild of America, (HGA) wrote today to say they have "published an article about handspinning bamboo fiber. The article, written by Bonnie S. Carter, is part of the Learning Exchange program, where HGA members exchange samples of their work with others. The article appears in the Summer, 2007 issue of Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot, HGA's quarterly magazine. To learn more about HGA, Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot, and the Learning Exchange program visit HGA's Web site." Their Web site also includes links to sources of bamboo fiber for spinning.
2007-07-07 I was in a toy store today, looking for something that would amuse my granddaughter, when I came across toys made, at least in part, with bamboo. The company's name is HaPe International and they described themselves as a Swiss company based on the east coast of China. I didn't buy any of their toys as they were probably not what my granddaughter might like, but I thought they were interesting.
2007-07-05 The New York Times garden section has an article about Pacific NW Chapter member Jackie Heinricher and her wholesale bamboo nursery, Boo-Shoot Gardens. It talks about her enthusiasm for bamboo and her success with tissue-culture propagation of bamboos and gives some general information about bamboo. There's a very nice photo of Jackie as well.
2007-07-02 Gib Cooper, ABS member and Executive Director of Bambúes de las Américas (BOTA), announced today the funding of a project submitted to their Student Assistance Program (BOTA-SAP).
Pedro Viana, a graduate student from the Federal University of Minas Gerais is preparing to do field work on a little known and rare genus of bamboo likely to have more endangered species in Brazil. His project titled, "The Genus Aulonemia in Brazil" will review and help in constructing a stronger foundation of knowledge for the ten known Brazilian species of "flute grass". His advisor, Dr. Tarciso Filgueiras hopes to establish an ex-situ collection from living plant material returned to the university by Viana. The taxonomy of the genus has potential for revision as a result of his work in Brazil and his collaboration with Dr. E. Judziewicz, who is working on the twenty-seven other species of the genus in South America. Information gained from his field work may potentially influence the creation of new conservation areas.
Four proposals were submitted in 2007, one each from Mexico, Brazil, Peru and Ecuador. They were reviewed by Dr. Lynn Clark of Iowa State University, Dr. Peggy Stern in Ecuador and Dr. Teresa Mejia of Mexico. A project in Peru is also in consideration for funding this year. The BOTA-SAP program allows up to $1000 for projects involving fieldwork and research on native bamboos of the Americas. The program was established in 2006 as a means to assist regional students in native bamboo studies. The first project funded last year helped doctoral student Eduardo Ruiz Sanchez of the Ecology Institute in Xalapa, Veracruz to collect species of Otatea, a genus of bamboo found mainly in Mexico. The National Bamboo Collection of Mexico is established at the institute's Clavijero Botanical Gardens. The collection was made possible by a $25,000 grant from BOTA in 2003 under the direction of Dr. Teresa Mejia and Biol. Gilberto Cortés.
Pedro Lage Viana was born in Belo Horizonte, in 1979, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. He graduated with a Biology degree from the Federal University of Minas Gerais in 2002 and, beginning in 2003, began his master's program at the same institution. The study consisted of an inventory of Poaceae species at the Rio Preto State Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil, advised by Dr. Tarciso S. Filgueiras and Dr. Julio A. Lombardi. In 2005 and 2006, he was substitute teacher at the Department of Botany of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, where he carried out some research projects on floristic inventories at Atlantic Forest sites. Now he's in the beginning of his doctorate thesis, which consist of the study of Aulonemia species in Brazil, also advised by Dr. Tarciso S. Filgueiras.
For more information, and interesting photos, visit the BOTA Web site or write to:
Gib Cooper, Executive Director2007-01-01 Richard S. George of Macon, GA noticed an article in the Los Angeles Times about bicycle-maker Craig Calfee of Santa Cruz. Calfee has been building bicycles of bamboo and has gained quite a reputation for these bikes, according to the article. There are photos on Calfee's site. These are expensive, good-looking, high-tech bicycles. Have a look. I then came across another mention of Craig Calfee in the context of producing cheap, bamboo-based bicycles for the developing world. The project is called the Bamboo Bike Project (clever, eh?) and is a collaboration with The Earth Institute at Columbia University. The project has lots of photos of the bikes on their Web pages.
2007-07-01 My Fargesia nitida has just about finished flowering and has started to die. I've collected some seeds and am going to see if I can germinate them. Stand by for more news as it develops.
2007-04-24 Well, finally! I've gotten the 2007 Species Source List converted to HTML and it's now available for browsing here. I know some of the links don't work yet, but I'll try to get it all fixed in the next week or so. The Source List is also available as a download in PDF format.
2007-04-22 Gib Cooper has had an article about Chusquias published in the March, 2007 issue of The Plantsman, the offical magazine of the Royal Horticultural Society. There are some nice photos with information about selecting appropriate varieties and propagating the bamboo.
2007-04-04 Dang, my Fargesia nitida has started to blossom in Seattle. It will be sad to loose the plant. Here's a close-up of what the blossom looks like.
2007-03-30 Doug Lewis of Seattle's Bamboo Hardwoods fame, had a very nice write up in the Seattle Times of 3/30/2007.
2007-03-13 Gib Cooper, director of Bamboos of the Americas, has written to point out an article on the Science Daily Web site about a new species of bamboo discovered in North America. ABS member and bamboo botanist Lynn Clark and graduate student Jimmy Triplett described and named the new bamboo. There are now three species of bamboo native to the U.S. The article is a bit technical, but still interesting.
2006-09-10 If you would like to support the World Bamboo Organization, Rich Delano of BambooFiber.com, has produced some WBO logo teeshirts. The teeshirts com in small to xx-large and are $20 plus shipping. The proceeds go to support the WBO. Write to Rich to place an order and get a deal on the shipping costs. See the Events page for information about the 2007 WBO meeting.
My wife is a weaver and every once in a while she comes across a source of bamboo yarn or fiber. This time it's The Yarn Barn of Kansas catalog which offers knit-spun bamboo yarn in ten colors. For all you weavers out there the cost is $13.50 for a 3.5 oz skein of 250 yards.