Bamboozled on Padre Island Beachcombing during these sweltering mid-August days, I begin to look forward to the cooler winter months on South Padre Island. That's when I collect most of my favorite wood, bamboo.   There is a wide variety of specimens that wash ashore from southern tropical regions.  I see short clumps of finger-size shoots, still connected by a woven mesh of roots.  Then, just a short distance from that, there may be a 12 footer with a diameter of 6 or more inches. I decide which pieces to take home, based on diameter, length, texture and overall condition.  In general though, bigger is usually better. The most beautiful piece of bamboo I've found, to date, now supports a palapa roof in Beachcomber's Museum.  It measures almost 6 feet tall with a circumference of 10 inches.  I also have pieces decoratively incorporated into a balcony roof, shelving, and even in the restroom, where the root is the most interesting section of the plant.   I've always known that household uses abound for bamboo but what I've learned recently is really quite remarkable.  I'm here to tell you that bamboo rules!  This plant, of which there are more than 1000 species, world-wide, is nothing short of amazing, Growing naturally on virtually every continent in the world, except the poles, bamboo is touted to be the fastest and strongest growing woody plant in the world.  When Tomas Edison was looking for just the right filament to use in his invention of the light bulb, he is said to have tried over 6000 items before settling on a carbonized piece of bamboo.  This same light bulb still burns in the Smithsonian Museum today.  Bamboo was also what Alexander Graham Bell used for the first phonograph needle. A stand of bamboo helps protect the environment by emitting 35% more oxygen than the same size stand of trees.  Its roots help prevent erosion.  It is stronger than mild steel, withstanding more than 52,000 pounds per square inch.  It's a high-yield, renewable resource that has endless applications.  Paper, food, medicine, cooking utensils, fishing rods, window treatments, furniture, musical instruments, fences, wallpaper, surf boards, ski poles, garden stakes for other plants, raw materials for house construction, and now, there is even an alternative to paneling and floor tiles called “ply boo”.   At this point, I'm just itching for more information on bamboo. I wonder if there is any use that hasn't been thought of yet? Speaking of itching; where is that backscratcher anyway?   Learn more about our Island, by visiting Beachcomber's Museum of Local and Natural History at 104 W. Pompano St. on the Island.  Store Hours: Noon - 6 p.m.  Tuesday - Sunday. Daily presentations from 2-3 pm hosted by Kay Lay and Steve Hathcock.