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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

#51

Post by crygin »

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 recently learned about beech masting in NZ, which has a similar (but much more frequent) blooming cycle based on the difference between successive summer temperatures: https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/publications/newsletters/...

"According to their ‘delta T’ (ΔT) model, the likelihood of masts by several species, including beech and tussocks, is positively correlated with the difference between average summer temperatures in successive years: a high positive value of ΔT (i.e. last summer warmer than the preceding summer) corresponds to a high likelihood of a mast in the coming year."

I'd always imagined that these types of events involved pheromone-type signaling, but this is kind of a cool way to do distributed consensus based on external signaling.

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

#52

Post by trashcan »

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".

Check out: http://www.bamboogarden.com/barrier%20installation.htm

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

#53

Post by pontifier »

crygin wrote: post #51
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 recently learned about beech masting in NZ, which has a similar (but much more frequent) blooming cycle based on the difference between successive summer temperatures: https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/publications/newsletters/... "According to their ‘delta T’ (ΔT) model, the likelihood of masts by several species, including beech and tussocks, is positively correlated with the difference between average summer te…

I saw an interesting Ted talk a few years ago about quorum sensing in bacteria.

Here's my recollection:

Essentially a single bacteria can't make you sick, and if it tried, it's so small that it would have no effect. Triggering a collective effect becomes critical for them to cause disease. Disrupting quorum sensing might be a way to fight otherwise resistant bacteria.

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

#54

Post by tabs_masterrace »

wccrawford wrote: post #21
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…

It could be that they all bloom when they receive a certain signal from another plant of the same species, and that they will set off that signal after storing up for 130 years after the last bloom. So even new plants will receive the signal and bloom, but the trigger takes 130 years to re-arm.

That sounds most plausible. After they bloom and all die, the first generation of new plants to grow will then start the 130 year clock again (by counting days or seasons) and be the first to release the signal again.

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

#55

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#56

Post by tdaltonc »

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…

In undergrad I made models of oscillator genes. They allow for digital cycle counting. They can also be chained to give base-2 counting systems. For example, cycle of gene A turns on gene B be turns off itself, one cycle of gene B turns on gene C, turns on gene A and turns off itself, etc. This would give you a binary counter. Assuming they all oscillate the same frequency, you would get something like:

+-------+---+---+---+---+

| Cycle | A | B | C | D |

+-------+---+---+---+---+

| 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |

+-------+---+---+---+---+

| 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |

+-------+---+---+---+---+

| 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |

+-------+---+---+---+---+

| 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |

+-------+---+---+---+---+

| 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |

+-------+---+---+---+---+

And then if gene D triggers flowering: Tada! you would get one flowering every 5 cycles. In practice things are never this simple. The gene expression rules are not that straightforward, the genes do not all express in the same cycles, you need some mechanism to keep things in sync between cells and plants etc. But the simplified model shows how powerful oscillator genes with expression switches can be.

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Oscillating_gene

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

#57

Post by mmanfrin »

jansan wrote: post #46
puzzlingcaptcha wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I thought that circadas thing was made up for the series Silicon Valley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxh2X6NjuhY

Even if it were made up, that bit of lore has been around much longer than the show.

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

#58

Post by komali2 »

wbl wrote: post #48
jansan wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought that circadas thing was made up for the series Silicon Valley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxh2X6NjuhY

Coming from NJ I can safely say cicadeads are not made up.

I promise I am not trying to be an asshole here - is there some joke I'm missing about both of your spelling of cicadas?

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

#59

Post by hammock »

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…

Doesn't have to be counting up. Counting down would be much easier.

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

#60

Post by bluejellybean »

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…

As another user mentioned, oscillating loops can achieve these phenomenon and they're extremely abundant in biology. The circadian rhythm is an excellent example of this behavior.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4758938/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4073891/

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