Can lye be extracted from bamboo ash?

I know that the best source of lye is hardwood. A brief search tells me that Bamboo is considered a hardwood of the monocotyledon variety. I've done a lot of searching to find this answer, but I can't seem to find if I can use the same process with bamboo ash as I would with, say, Apple ash, to extract lye. 


My question is two-fold:


1) Is it possible to extract lye from bamboo ash?


and if so, 


2) Would this lye be a quality lye, capable of being used to create bar soap?




Yes, it's possible but as pointed out in [Bamboo: an overlooked biomass resource?](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0961953400000386) Biomass and Bioenergy, Vol. 19, pages 229-244:



> 
> [bamboo] shares a number of desirable fuel characteristics with certain other bioenergy feedstocks, such as low ash content and alkali index
> 
> 
> 


Potassium oxides are between 33-50% of the ash depending upon species and age of the plant. 


Potassium oxides were between 0.16-0.58% of dry matter. 


Sodium oxides were about a factor of 100 lower. 


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> 
> I know that the best source of lye is hardwood.
> 
> 
> 


Is that really so?


In *THE SODIUM, POTASSIUM AND PHOSPHORUS CONTENTS OF TREE SPECIES GROWN IN CLOSE STANDS*, published in *New Phytologist*, **1958**, *57(3)*, 273–284 ([DOI](http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.1958.tb05316.x)), J. D. Ovington and H. A. I. Madgwick state:



> 
> [...] In nearly all cases, conifers contain greater weights of sodium, potassium
>  and phosphorus than hardwoods of the same age grown under similar conditions. [...]
> 
> 
> 


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