American Bamboo Society Information

The American Bamboo Society (ABS) was formed in 1979 and became incorporated in the state of California in 1981. Today we have over 800 members living throughout the U.S. and in 39 other countries. The ABS issues a bimonthly magazine, BAMBOO, and the Journal of the American Bamboo Society, which is issued irregularly. We sponsor lectures, conferences, tours and plant sales in the chapter areas. Chapters maintain bamboo libraries, distribute publications and donate plants to public gardens. Although bamboo seed is rare, we distribute seed to members when it is available. Chapters operate quarantine greenhouses for newly imported bamboo species at Quail Botanical Gardens in Encinitas, CA; at the San Francisco Zoo in California, at Broward Community College near Miami, FL and in Rockport, MA. Since 1980, the ABS has successfully introduced many new species of bamboo to the U.S. We are a member of the World Bamboo Organization, an association of bamboo societies throughout the world, which sponsors an international bamboo conference every four years. The ABS bylaws are available for downloading. It is an Adobe Reader PDF file.