Bamboo

Much as they're trumpeted by so-called eco-designers, plant-based alternatives to cotton are a minuscule piece of the fashion puzzle. Dwarfed by cotton and synthetics such as polyester, spandex and rayon, textiles made from flax, wood pulp, hemp and bamboo make up less than 2% of the market. But that percentage is growing due to consumer and corporate demand, as well as technological advancements that make natural fibers easier to transform into wearable fabrics. One of the more promising developments in sustainable textiles is flax , a stalky and fibrous plant that can be grown with far less water and fewer pesticides than cotton and produced at a lower price.

Timpanist Joseph Pereira was in the kitchen, preparing to marinate short ribs in French wine, when he made an important discovery: That nice plastic cork at the top of the wine bottle had a terrific consistency. It wasn't long before Pereira, who has long customized his instruments, was experimenting with the plastic cork inside the end of his drum mallets. "I cut the top part off and wrapped it for a new stick, which I use every week," says the musician and composer. "It has a really warm tone to it. " His compositions also come from unlikely sources.

A Zen-inspired garden marks the entrance of a Mar Vista home designed in the International style and surrounded by stands of bamboo. At the heart of the U-shaped home, which looks out on a lap pool, is a two-story great room with a wet bar, fireplace and clerestory windows. Location: 3571 Grand View Blvd., Los Angeles 90066 Asking price: $2.695 million Year built: 2006 Architect: Ron Godfredsen House size: Four bedrooms, three bathrooms, 4,250 square feet Lot size: 10,804 square feet Features: Floor-to-ceiling glass windows, recessed doors, 40-foot lap pool, guest suite with patio, two fireplaces, skylights, basement, den, media room, office, wine cellar, gym. About the area: Last year, 263 single-family homes sold in the 90066 ZIP Code at a median price of $705,000, according to DataQuick.

A Zen-inspired garden marks the entrance of a Mar Vista home designed in the International style and surrounded by stands of bamboo. At the heart of the U-shaped home, which looks out on a lap pool, is a two-story great room with a wet bar, fireplace and clerestory windows. Location: 3571 Grand View Blvd., Los Angeles 90066 Asking price: $2.695 million Year built: 2006 Architect: Ron Godfredsen House size: Four bedrooms, three bathrooms, 4,250 square feet Lot size: 10,804 square feet Features: Floor-to-ceiling glass windows, recessed doors, 40-foot lap pool, guest suite with patio, two fireplaces, skylights, basement, den, media room, office, wine cellar, gym. About the area: Last year, 263 single-family homes sold in the 90066 ZIP Code at a median price of $705,000, according to DataQuick.

It's been an eco-friendly staple in flooring and furniture for years, and now it's gaining new ground with style hounds. Fashion designers knit with its distinctive fibers (which feel like a cross between rayon and cotton), and beauty companies tap its sap for skin-nourishing serums. You can eat it and drink it too. Guess that's why they call it the plant of a thousand uses.

Giant pandas in northwestern China could be at risk of starvation because the bamboo plants they eat are beginning to die off in a cycle that happens every 60 years, the official New China News Agency reported. Workers at Baishuijiang State Nature Preserve in Gansu province plan to monitor the 102 pandas there for signs of hunger and move threatened animals to areas that still have bamboo. Pandas derive most of their nutrition from bamboo.

Indian scientists have made a breakthrough that could eventually help save China's giant panda, endangered by dwindling supplies of arrow bamboo, its staple diet, a leading British botanist has reported. The three Indians have induced bamboo to flower early, David Hanke, a Cambridge University botanist, wrote in the journal Nature. He said the discovery by scientists R. S. Nadgauda, V. A. Parasharami and A. F.

For Stephen Glassman, the creative process means adapting an ancient natural resource and centuries-old Asian construction techniques to contemporary design in the Western world. As he likes to put it: "Bamboo is a hollow, round, irregular, resin-impregnated fibrous material, directly opposite the solid, rectilinear, machined units our building culture is based on. It offers a completely new foundation with which to approach space and structure."

The $2-million mystery of the bamboo forest, after playing through the Japanese psyche like a dark subplot to Tokyo's continuing political scandal, finally has been solved. But as so often in Japan, the solution seemed only to deepen the mystery. It began April 11, when a humble seller of yakitori (grilled chicken), rooting through an urban bamboo thicket for some tasty shoots, stumbled across a wad of rotting, abandoned yen. Like any good Japanese, he took the money to the police.

It's every homeowners' nightmare--the modest house next door becomes a two-story, lot-filling monster after an ambitious remodel. Or a three-story apartment suddenly springs up where that little bungalow used to be--every one of its windows looking down into your backyard. Quickly now, what do you do? Sell? Remodel? Or plant bamboo?

Call central casting. Actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have sold their Malibu beach house to talk-show host and comedian Ellen De Generes for $12 million. The 4,088-square-foot house, built in 1962, features walls of glass, dark bamboo flooring, three fireplaces, four bedrooms and four bathrooms. The ocean-view home sits on 1.26 bluff-top acres with a tennis court, a lap pool and beach access. Pitt, 48, starred last year in "Moneyball" and "The Tree of Life. " He will star in the upcoming "Cogan's Trade" and "World War Z. " Jolie, 36, won an Oscar for her supporting role in "Girl, Interrupted" (1999)

When it comes to uses of bamboo, many think of chopsticks, panda food or patio furniture. Simon Velez, on the other hand, envisions bus stations, churches or bridges. The Bogota, Colombia-based architect is leading a global crusade for new uses of the plant, a giant member of the grass family, as a strong, eco-sustainable, aesthetically pleasing material that can substitute for wood and concrete in many projects. Velez was long a lonely advocate, with most of his colleagues viewing bamboo as fit only for use as a finishing material in matting or plywood.

In July, Naoko Ikeda, the owner of Blooming Art, a Japanese arts and crafts store in the Japanese Village Plaza of Little Tokyo, had an idea. She cut a stalk of bamboo from her home garden and set it up in her store along with a sign explaining a Japanese tradition to her customers. As part of the annual Tanabata Festival, people write their wishes on small pieces of paper and tie them to bamboo trees. Later, the wish-laden bamboo are thrown into a river or brought to a shrine where they are set on fire.

COTTON Prized for: Soft feel and easy maintenance; wide availability Percentage of clothes sold in the U.S. that incorporate cotton: Almost 75% Primary sources: China, India, U.S. FLAX Prized for: Color and performance traits similar to cotton; plants require no irrigation and fewer chemical fertilizers and pesticides than cotton Percentage of clothes sold in the U.S. that incorporate flax: 1.1% Primary sources:...

Much as they're trumpeted by so-called eco-designers, plant-based alternatives to cotton are a minuscule piece of the fashion puzzle. Dwarfed by cotton and synthetics such as polyester, spandex and rayon, textiles made from flax, wood pulp, hemp and bamboo make up less than 2% of the market. But that percentage is growing due to consumer and corporate demand, as well as technological advancements that make natural fibers easier to transform into wearable fabrics. One of the more promising developments in sustainable textiles is flax , a stalky and fibrous plant that can be grown with far less water and fewer pesticides than cotton and produced at a lower price.

Former Los Angeles Dodger Alex Cora has sold his Pinecrest, Fla., home for $1,815,000. The house features marble and bamboo floors, three en-suite bedrooms and a master suite with a balcony overlooking the backyard swimming pool and spa. The 5,770-square-foot house, built in 2006, has six bedrooms and 61/2 bathrooms including the maid's quarters. Cora, 35, made his major league debut in 1998 for the Dodgers, and he played second base and shortstop during his seven years with the team.

Shale Gordon lives in a bamboo universe. He grows it, sells the edible shoots to be mixed into chop suey and makes out-there playthings -- surfboards and skateboards --from the eco-friendly grass (yes, grass). Gordon, a 49-year-old retired cardiologist from Hermosa Beach, and other bamboo enthusiasts -- from serious environmentalists to tiki-hut kitsch collectors -- think the time has come for others to enter their high-stalk world.

THEY are traipsing around Cliff Sussman's home in La Verne, navigating a steep hillside that's wildly overgrown with bamboo -- scores of tropical and subtropical species spreading underground, thick cones and tender new shoots poking up as robust mature specimens tilt against one another, fighting for space and light. Sussman has labeled some of his plants but admits with a grin that he's not 100% sure what's what.

Amid the gray warehouses, graffiti-covered freeway overpasses and railroad tracks along the Los Angeles River in Boyle Heights, a tiny patch of green thrives. It's off a narrow street lined with warehouses. The first sign of something strange and wondrous is a set of steps, neatly carved out of a bare slope. At the top of the stairs, a chain-link fence with a "CLOSED FOR CLEANING" sign marks the entrance to the domain of "Bamboo Charlie." The gate opens onto a grove of green bamboo.

Oscar-winning actress Penelope Cruz has listed her Sunset Strip-area home at $3,695,000. Described as "Balinese modern," the one-story house has intricately carved entry doors that open to a courtyard with a fountain. Another set of double doors lead to the open-plan interior, which has bamboo floors, skylights and French doors along the back. A living room, a dining area, a breakfast area, an office, three bedrooms and 3 1/2 bathrooms lie in more than 3,300 square feet of living space.