Giant Bamboo (Dendrocalamus giganteus Munro) Anatomical and Physical Characterization

The work aimed to carry out the anatomical and physical characterizations of adult bamboo rods of Dendrocalamus giganteus Munro. So, four rods were collected and sectioned in culms of 2.10 m long. From the ends of the culms were obtained 5.0 cm thick disks that were transformed into samples for anatomical and physical characterizations. In this study, were measured the percentage of fibers, vessels, parenchyma, the moisture content, the basic specific gravity and oven dry specific gravity and shrinkage. The studied bamboo has 0 to 4 vessels mm–2, with average of 2 vessels mm–2, with average fiber length of 2.72 mm and 50.72% consists of parenchyma tissue. The moisture content was quantified at 60%, the basic specific gravity in 0.66 g cm–3, the oven dry specific gravity in 0.83 g cm–3 and volumetric shrinkage in 15.40%. It was observed that the bamboo physical characteristics were influenced by the layout and anatomical elements proportion.