How to use the word 'bamboo'?

[diamondcutter]

For the word ‘bamboo’, my dictionaries just label it as countable and uncountable noun, but no sample sentences are given. I wonder when this word is used as a countable noun and when an uncountable noun. Would you please give me some examples?

 

[Tarheel]

Pandas eat bamboo.
You can use bamboo to make furniture.
If it wasn't for all those pandas we could use more bamboo to make furniture.

It seems to be a noncount noun there, doesn't it?
:-D

 

[diamondcutter]

At last, I read this sentence in my Merriam-Webster dictionary.We cut down some bamboos.I wonder if the ‘bamboos’ here means several bamboo plants or different kinds of bamboo.

 

[Tarheel]

Probably several bamboo plants.

 

[bubbha]

To me, "bamboos" seems wrong in almost any context. A possible exception would be speaking of different bamboo species. I can't rule out specialized fields that might pluralize bamboo. I've seen very odd usages of English words in specialized fields, like pluralizing "good" (as in "the public good") in the field of international development.

 

[jutfrank]

I suppose a horticulturalist could use bamboo as a countable noun to refer to individual plants but it doesn't sound very natural to me. We're pretty much always referring to it in its uncountable sense.

 

[J&K Tutoring]

I think one has to get pretty pedantic to support the notion of bamboo as countable (other than in botanical discourse as bubbha pointed out), so here's a link: https://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/chittychittybangbang/meolbam-boo.htm

Apparently, gentlemen's walking sticks are sometimes made of bamboo, which seems a good use of this remarkable material. I don't know if a bamboo walking stick is commonly called a bamboo or if that was an invention of the writers.