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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

#31

Post by checker »

Jedd wrote: post #10

Bamboo species are amazing. I grow Bambusa oldhamii - useful for food (shoots) and timber. It's a clumping variety, so quite easy to control, and tolerant (if not particularly happy) of dry, wet, heat, and cold. But my clones are taken from a variety that flowered in the 90's, IIRC, so there's some confidence they won't all flower (and immediately die) for another ~70 years. The variety they're talking about here is…

I wish my bamboo (inherited from a previous owner) would flower instead of battling me for control of my yard. I really need to read up on the best way to control it - sounds like my variety might be a "runner".

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

#32

Post by nkrisc »

deepzn wrote: post #14
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?

But is that bamboo you're planting really a different age? Bamboo reproduces clonally, right? So isn't that bamboo you're planting really part of an older stock? So its clock started ticking when its ancestor clone first began growing.

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

#33

Post by superqwert »

I wonder how long the seeds will take to germinate. I have some seeds of a hardier and more common bamboo Chusquea culeou, which have been stratified in a variety of ways and put in moist soil for over half a year now - none have germinated yet. After getting worried, I've done some research and it turns out that many types of bamboo can spend years dormant in the ground, before suddenly shooting up and growing at incredible speeds.

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

#34

Post by pvaldes »

deepzn wrote: post #14
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?

> if I planted a bamboo yesterday, and today was when they all bloomed, would that bloom?

In principle Yes but is an extreme example. Is possible also that the plant just will die before if roots are damaged in the process and their reserves are depleted.

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

#36

Post by pvaldes »

mangatmodi wrote: post #13

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

In the past maybe. Now cats, dogs and foxes population just would explode.

In the 21 century finding some glass jars or metallic recipients with a solid cover lid shouldn't be a great problem. If you can find a beer or a cocacola in your village you have yet a rat-proof recipient for safely storing seeds. Rodents are edible also if not other food is available

Is also interesting to notice that this bamboo ecology fact, seen as a symbol of bad luck, gave us an unexpected and priceless gift: chicken eggs. Domestic hens are able to lay 12 months a year because red jungle fowl and bamboo forests are linked and evolved to get advantage of years of bamboo flowering

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

#37

Post by ComodoHacker »

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…

Maybe they're not sensing absolute time, but sensing bloom events from other plants? Some mechanism akin to quantum entanglement perhaps?

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

#38

Post by dbcurtis »

checker wrote: post #31
Jedd wrote: post #10

Bamboo species are amazing. I grow Bambusa oldhamii - useful for food (shoots) and timber. It's a clumping variety, so quite easy to control, and tolerant (if not particularly happy) of dry, wet, heat, and cold. But my clones are taken from a variety that flowered in the 90's, IIRC, so there's some confidence they won't all flower (and immediately die) for another ~70 years. The variety they're talking about here is…

I wish my bamboo (inherited from a previous owner) would flower instead of battling me for control of my yard. I really need to read up on the best way to control it - sounds like my variety might be a "runner".

I think the way to control running bamboo is with a deep solid fence/wall dug into a trench. I am led to understand that there is a depth that a particular specie will not run below.

I may be wrong. The previous owner of my neighbor's house had a bamboo garden... the current owner was not aware of how to maintain it. The previous owner of my house had a rose garden. I am not a particularly clever gardener, and having grown up in Minnesota, was not familiar with the habits of bamboo. The bamboo ran under the fence, and attacked the roses in our yard before I noticed it. The bamboo identified rose bush root clumps, attacked, surrounded, and choked them.

So in the aftermath, I ripped out dead roses and built a play structure for my offspring, my neighbor ripped out the bamboo jungle and created a nice patio, so we both netted out OK. Our research led us to determine that a trenched solid barrier should have been put in place originally, but we weren't going to test the theory.

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

#39

Post by js2 »

magic_beans wrote: post #26
nwhatt wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly one of the best Nova titles ever - "Rat Attack" follows this phenomenon: https://www.pbs.org/video/nova-rat-attack/

Video not available in my area! But why!? Have the rights expired for US viewers??

This appears to be a mirror image version (literally) of it:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6uvx3k

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

#40

Post by PuffinBlue »

Wow, today I am one of the lucky ten thousand. This is a beautiful bit of the natural world I had no idea about.

It's wonderful to learn of something so 'purely' interesting, and (now I've dived a little down the rabbit hole) shared amongst other species like Cicada.

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