✻Forecast FarmClimate · Cultivation · Consequence
Tropical grass · Structural fibre

Bamboo

Bambusa vulgaris · Gramineae

Bamboo is a tropical grass that grows best in the 22–28°C range with 1200–2500 mm of rain, cropping over a 300–365-day season.

Optimal temp
22–28 °C
Annual rain
1200–2500 mm
Max altitude
—
Cold limit
9°C
Growing cycle
300–365 d
Climate-fit land
25 % world

How it grows

Bamboo
Photo: Vijayanrajapuram · CC BY-SA 4.0
Bamboo
Photo: Yuri Ribeiro Sucupira · CC0
🌳 On a tree

Bamboo grows on a tree — the fruit ripens above the ground, up in the canopy.

Where Earth's climate suits bamboo

Global climatic suitability map for Bamboo
marginal suitable good excellent unsuitable land
25% of world land

Climatic suitability only — scored for every 0.5° of the planet from this crop's temperature and rainfall tolerances (FAO EcoCrop) on AgroClim 1991–2025 normals (AgERA5 temperature, CHIRPS/ERA5 rainfall). It shows where the rain-fed climate permits the crop, not where it is grown today; irrigation lets many crops thrive in drier country than the map suggests (California, Egypt, the Indus and Nile).

Who grows it — and where the climate merely allows it

Actual production
FAOSTAT reports this crop only inside a broader category, so standalone country tonnage is not shown.
Climatic fit · computed
Where the climate suits it best
Brazil
Dem. Rep. Congo
Indonesia
India
China
Colombia
United States of America
Venezuela
Ranked by suitable land area (EcoCrop×AgroClim). Climate permits far more than is farmed — economics and history decide the rest.

Climate envelope · FAO EcoCrop

Temperatureoptimum 22–28°C · tolerates 9–32°C
-5°C45°C
Annual rainfalloptimum 1200–2500 mm · tolerates 700–4500 mm
0 mm4500 mm
Soil pHoptimum 4.5–6.5 · tolerates 4.5–6.5
3.09.0

Deep bar = optimal range; pale bar = absolute tolerance. Beyond the pale bar the crop fails. Latitude tolerance ±40° · soil pH 4.5–6.5.

Growing calendar & hazards

Season

An annual cycle of roughly 300–365 days from sowing to harvest, so it is timed to fall within the frost-free, adequately-wet part of the year for the location.

What threatens the crop
  • Cold & frost. A frost-sensitive crop: temperatures near or below freezing damage or kill it, so it is confined to frost-free seasons and warm climates.
  • Wet & disease. A thirsty crop that needs abundant rain; in the wettest climates, humidity brings fungal disease pressure.

Related crops