Thursday, April 24, 2008

The strength of plants

Bamboo are often planted in gardens but can turn into nasty things. Here is a photo by a friend of mine, with his story of what happened.


"First it pushed up through a foot of reinforced concrete breaking steel rebar, then it forced its way thru six inches of solid oak and pine flooring, splitting it easily, with much cracking, splintering, and so forth, and then it squeezed between the wall and unit there. Simple for bamboo."

7 comments:

PP said...

6 inches of oak and pine flooring? Hmmm I don't think so. No floor is 6" thick...still AMAZING.

LS said...

I think he means that the subfloor and the floor surface was 6 inches apart.

O.K. said...

PP wrote exactly what I was going to, so I'll just agree that it is amazing.

Katie H said...

I read this post, and then had nightmares about bamboo taking over my house... through the crevices and cracks it created, as the township of hippies stood outside, eyes aglow, chanting their love of sustainable building materials.


It was strange.

O.K. said...

Ah, some poetry in the morning! Just what I needed. Thanks swedette! :)

EH said...

Crazy dream Swedette. I wonder what you dream when I give you a "vitsippsbacke" !

LS said...

In case you didn't know, bamboos are not only nightmares but real terror. In Southeast Asia they used to take captured war enemies, tie them to a simple bamboo bed in the forest with some growing bamboo shoots beneath. Considering that some species grow 30 cm per DAY, and are pointed like sharpened spears at their tips, imagine how it would feel to feel these growing through your body and intestines. Not nice.