OUR WORK

Who We Are

History of the American Bamboo Society.

The American Bamboo Society (ABS) was formed in 1979 and became incorporated in the state of California in 1981. Today, the ABS has members living throughout the U.S. and in many other countries. The ABS publishes a quarterly magazine (BAMBOO), and the online Journal of the American Bamboo Society. We encourage ABS regional chapters to hold meetings with lectures, tours and plant sales. Some chapters maintain bamboo libraries, distribute publications and donate plants to public gardens. Because flowering of bamboos is often a rare but periodic event commonly leading to the death of the plant, there exists an ABS record of bamboo flowering. Since 1980, the ABS has successfully introduced many new species of bamboo to the U.S. through auctions of bamboos recently released from USDA quarantine. The ABS is a member of the World Bamboo Organization, an association of bamboo societies throughout the world, which sponsors an international bamboo conference every two or three years.