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“Once-in-a-Hundred Year” Sightings of Bamboo Blossoms Reported in Japan

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Re: “Once-in-a-Hundred Year” Sightings of Bamboo Blossoms Reported in Japan

#11

Post by Qwertystop »

wodenokoto wrote: post #8
pas wrote: post #5

> Perhaps even more surprising than the long intervals at which they flower is the fact that all plants of the same stock of bamboo will bloom at the same time, and then die, [...] What? I thought bamboo is a fast growing thing, and it's easy to grow bamboo. Just stick it into the soil in the right conditions and it'll sprout roots and grow. (It can even be grown from seeds.)

Growing and flowering are two different things. As the article mentions, some types of bamboo will flower only once every 100 odd years. When they do, they pollenate each-other and grow fruits and die. In some parts of the world rats will feasts on these fruits, and rodent populations will explode, contributing to the "Bad Omen". > Just stick it into the soil in the right conditions When all the bamboo decides to flo…

> When all the bamboo decides to flower and die at the same time, what exactly are you planning to stick in the ground?

Presumably, the seeds from the fruits from the last generation. Though they would certainly take a bit of time.

Re: “Once-in-a-Hundred Year” Sightings of Bamboo Blossoms Reported in Japan

#12

Post by jacobush »

radarsat1 wrote: post #2

> Perhaps even more surprising than the long intervals at which they flower is the fact that all plants of the same stock of bamboo will bloom at the same time, and then die, no matter where they are in the world. > Although the mechanism has yet to be explained by science, many believe there is some kind of natural “alarm clock” in the plant’s cells causing the behavior. That is amazing. I'm having a hard time imagi…

I wonder if they could adapt to a longer or shorter year cycle. Expose seeds to conditions simulating say 20 year cycles or "summer" "spring" "fall" and "winter", only slightly compressed so they are passing by over 15 calendar years. Perhaps you will have a batch of bamboo flowering 5 years earlier than their kin in the wild?

Re: “Once-in-a-Hundred Year” Sightings of Bamboo Blossoms Reported in Japan

#14

Post by deepzn »

radarsat1 wrote: post #2

> Perhaps even more surprising than the long intervals at which they flower is the fact that all plants of the same stock of bamboo will bloom at the same time, and then die, no matter where they are in the world. > Although the mechanism has yet to be explained by science, many believe there is some kind of natural “alarm clock” in the plant’s cells causing the behavior. That is amazing. I'm having a hard time imagi…

Is it also for bamboos of different ages, like if I planted a bamboo yesterday, and today was when they all bloomed, would that bloom? The article mentioned an owner planting one in 2008 and it blooming now? So, that would mean the natural clock isn't about how old they get, but for a certain date-time or period or some weather conditions perhaps?

Re: “Once-in-a-Hundred Year” Sightings of Bamboo Blossoms Reported in Japan

#15

Post by puzzlingcaptcha »

radarsat1 wrote: post #2

> Perhaps even more surprising than the long intervals at which they flower is the fact that all plants of the same stock of bamboo will bloom at the same time, and then die, no matter where they are in the world. > Although the mechanism has yet to be explained by science, many believe there is some kind of natural “alarm clock” in the plant’s cells causing the behavior. That is amazing. I'm having a hard time imagi…

There are some other examples like that in biology, my favourite being 13- and 17-year periodic cicadas [1] with one theory being that a prime number was selected for during evolution to make it more difficult to synchronize with predator life cycles.

Counters in biology are also a thing, for example Hayflick limit [2] which is a number of times a single cell can divide before it dies (partially explained by telomere shortening due to particularities of replication of the lagging DNA strand 3). What is interesting here is that plants from the same clone grown in different climates likely grow at different rates so the counter must be decoupled from cell division. Perhaps accumulation of some metabolite that adds up every season triggers it at some threshold?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodical_cicadas [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayflick_limit [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telomere#Shortening

Re: “Once-in-a-Hundred Year” Sightings of Bamboo Blossoms Reported in Japan

#16

Post by cmrdporcupine »

radarsat1 wrote: post #2

> Perhaps even more surprising than the long intervals at which they flower is the fact that all plants of the same stock of bamboo will bloom at the same time, and then die, no matter where they are in the world. > Although the mechanism has yet to be explained by science, many believe there is some kind of natural “alarm clock” in the plant’s cells causing the behavior. That is amazing. I'm having a hard time imagi…

I don't know the exact mechanism (it sounds like nobody does) but remember these are clonally propagated (until they flower, which I presume creates seeds). So most of the entire population is actually one genetic "individual". So the 'alarm clock' must be tied to the original genetic signature.

Re: “Once-in-a-Hundred Year” Sightings of Bamboo Blossoms Reported in Japan

#17

Post by lmm »

wodenokoto wrote: post #8
pas wrote: post #5

> Perhaps even more surprising than the long intervals at which they flower is the fact that all plants of the same stock of bamboo will bloom at the same time, and then die, [...] What? I thought bamboo is a fast growing thing, and it's easy to grow bamboo. Just stick it into the soil in the right conditions and it'll sprout roots and grow. (It can even be grown from seeds.)

Growing and flowering are two different things. As the article mentions, some types of bamboo will flower only once every 100 odd years. When they do, they pollenate each-other and grow fruits and die. In some parts of the world rats will feasts on these fruits, and rodent populations will explode, contributing to the "Bad Omen". > Just stick it into the soil in the right conditions When all the bamboo decides to flo…

> When all the bamboo decides to flower and die at the same time, what exactly are you planning to stick in the ground?

The seeds from the flowers?

Re: “Once-in-a-Hundred Year” Sightings of Bamboo Blossoms Reported in Japan

#18

Post by foxhop »

dessant wrote: post #3
radarsat1 wrote: post #2

> Perhaps even more surprising than the long intervals at which they flower is the fact that all plants of the same stock of bamboo will bloom at the same time, and then die, no matter where they are in the world. > Although the mechanism has yet to be explained by science, many believe there is some kind of natural “alarm clock” in the plant’s cells causing the behavior. That is amazing. I'm having a hard time imagi…

What does "same stock" mean in this case?

Same stock typically means same root stock, which is how people propagate and bamboo naturally clones itself.

Re: “Once-in-a-Hundred Year” Sightings of Bamboo Blossoms Reported in Japan

#19

Post by foxhop »

mangatmodi wrote: post #13

Long back I read that Bamboo blossoms are often accompanied by famines due to rise in rat population.

Interesting, it seems we are in the midst of famine conditions if it doesn't stop raining on the USA and droughting in Australia. It seems every part of the planet right now is having trouble with it's food supply.

One theory I was researching was the grand solar minimum.

Re: “Once-in-a-Hundred Year” Sightings of Bamboo Blossoms Reported in Japan

#20

Post by nostalgk »

Qwertystop wrote: post #11
wodenokoto wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Growing and flowering are two different things. As the article mentions, some types of bamboo will flower only once every 100 odd years. When they do, they pollenate each-other and grow fruits and die. In some parts of the world rats will feasts on these fruits, and rodent populations will explode, contributing to the "Bad Omen". > Just stick it into the soil in the right conditions When all the bamboo decides to flo…

> When all the bamboo decides to flower and die at the same time, what exactly are you planning to stick in the ground? Presumably, the seeds from the fruits from the last generation. Though they would certainly take a bit of time.

From what I can gather, it appears that a large amount of industry in Japan relies (or did at some time) on the long flowering cycle causing continual growth of the bamboo stalks, only further complicated by the cloning process that likely cuts from the same plants.
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