This interior town is not only the “basket capital” but also the source of well-crafted bamboo furniture that draws tourists every old-fashioned market day on Sunday but its makers and producers expressed concern over the diminishing supply of raw materials.
“Bamboo stands out among woody plants because it possesses unique qualities and offers a wide array of uses,” It has been used as an inexpensive source of housing materials, furniture, handicraft, banana props, fishpens and other innumerable bamboo charcoal products. It is also a source of food and culinary craving. Through the years, bamboo’s uses have largely diversified and benefited many industries.
“Bamboos are a group of woody perennial evergreen plants in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Some of its members are giants, forming by far the largest members of the grass family.”
No one really could tellthe origin of bamboo but legend had it that “the first man and the first woman were split open from a bamboo stem that emerged on an island created after the battle of the elemental forces (Sky and Ocean).” Some 23 of these about a thousand species are said to be endemic in the Philippines.
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