The Wood Guide
Wood species100 Wood species →

Our wood species

Wood groups

European hardwoods

Softwoods

Tropical hardwoods

Treated wood

Sheet materials

Construction timber

Other materials

Comparisons

Which wood for what

Understanding wood17 Understanding wood →

Properties and movement

Calculations and sizes

Pests and decay

Identifying, quality and trade

Wood in our world

Care & finishing28 Care & finishing →

The complete guide

Treating and finishing

By wood species

By furniture and place

Problems and repair

Seasons

Choosing & buying16 Choosing & buying →

Picnic tables

Beer tables

Garden benches

Garden furniture

Garden and atmosphere

Indoors

Build it yourself51 Build it yourself →

In the garden

In and around the house

Making furniture

Techniques

Tools and glue

Getting started

Trees & forests31 Trees & forests →

Tree portraits

Forests

From forest to plank

To the Wood Guide home page →

Is bamboo wood?

The Wood Guide · Calculating with wood

Wood knowledge

Is bamboo wood?

The short answer is no. The long answer explains why a grass can be stronger than many a tree.

  • Family Poaceae — grasses
  • Harvested after 3 to 5 years
  • No growth rings
Poaceae (Bambusoideae)
In pictures · Is bamboo wood?1 / 6
Chapter 1 · The species

Is bamboo wood?

The short answer is no. The long answer explains why a grass can be stronger than many a tree.

Click a chapter or use the arrows.

Summary

Bamboo in brief

Botanically, bamboo is a grass, not a tree. But the properties of the processed stem are so close to wood that the confusion is understandable.

A tree grows in thickness by adding a ring every year. Bamboo does not: the stem comes out of the ground at its final diameter and only grows in length — sometimes up to a metre a day. So there are no growth rings, no heartwood and no sapwood.

The stem is hollow, with hard fibrous walls and reinforcing nodes. After drying, sawing into strips and gluing into boards, you get a material that behaves like solid wood: hard, hard-wearing, with a grain of its own.

Why the question matters

More than a bit of trivia: because bamboo is not wood, it falls outside many timber standards. The durability classes under EN 350 do not apply to it, so "durability class" on a bamboo product refers to something different than on a wooden board.

Botanical
family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae
Type
grass, not a tree
Growth
up to about 1 metre a day
Ready for harvest
after 3 to 5 years
Structure
hollow stem with nodes, no growth rings
Processing
sawn into strips and glued into boards

Fair is fair: bamboo board is a glued material, and those glue lines are its weak spot outdoors. In a damp outdoor situation they eventually come apart. Bamboo is excellent indoors and limited outdoors — exactly the opposite of what its sustainable image suggests.

The resemblance

Why bamboo behaves like wood

High tensile strength

Relative to its weight, bamboo fibre is exceptionally strong in tension — stronger than many wood species, and in that ratio even stronger than steel.

Hard and hard-wearing

Glued bamboo board reaches hardness values close to oak. That is why it is used in floors and worktops.

Workable like wood

Sawing, sanding, varnishing and screwing all work with ordinary woodworking tools.

A grain of its own

The strips and nodes give a recognisable striped pattern — different from wood, but just as characteristic.

The environmental side

What the argument is worth

Strong

What really holds true

  • Ready for harvest after 3 to 5 years, compared with 20 to 80 years for a tree
  • The rhizome stays alive: no replanting needed after harvest
  • High CO₂ uptake per hectare thanks to fast growth
  • Often grows without pesticides or irrigation
Weak

What you should add

  • Almost all of it comes from Asia — transport over long distances
  • Gluing costs energy and adhesives, which weakens the environmental gain
  • Monocultures can crowd out native vegetation
  • Outdoors, the glue lines eventually come apart
Where bamboo fits for us

We use bamboo for interiors and light uses — there its strengths are real and its weaknesses irrelevant. For garden furniture that stays outdoors all year round, we choose wood.

Uses

Where bamboo belongs

Use Suitable? Reason
Floors and worktops Excellent Hard, hard-wearing, dimensionally stable indoors
Indoor furniture Excellent Strong, light, a look of its own
Chopping boards and kitchen utensils Good Dense and hard; do wash by hand
Bathroom furniture Good More moisture-resistant than most wood species
Decking boards Limited Only specially pressed outdoor grade
Garden furniture that stays outdoors Not recommended Glue lines eventually come apart
Quick answer

Frequently asked questions about bamboo

So is bamboo wood or not?

Botanically not: bamboo is a grass from the family Poaceae, with no growth rings, heartwood or sapwood. In practice, glued bamboo board does behave like wood — hard, hard-wearing and workable with woodworking tools.

Is bamboo more sustainable than wood?

In terms of growth rate, certainly: ready for harvest after three to five years, and the rhizome sprouts again by itself. Against that stand the transport from Asia and the energy and adhesive used in pressing.

Can bamboo be used outdoors?

To a limited extent. Ordinary bamboo board is for indoors; there is a specially pressed outdoor grade, but it is more expensive and not comparable with teak or acacia in the long term.

Why does bamboo have no growth rings?

Because the stem does not grow in thickness. It comes out of the ground at its final diameter and only grows in length — the way a grass grows, not a tree.

More in The Wood Guide

Bamboo in perspective

Not wood, but a fully fledged material — as long as you keep it indoors.

To The Wood Guide Interior Heartwood and sapwood

Have a question about your project? Just ask — we're happy to help.

The Wood Guide

More in Wood species

Other sections:Understanding woodCare & finishingChoosing & buyingBuild it yourselfTrees & forests