Brockie: Mysterious bamboo flowers every 120 years, then dies

[Judi Lynn]

Last edited Mon Apr 9, 2018, 01:01 AM - Edit history (1)

BOB BROCKIE
Last updated 05:00, April 9 2018

Botanists the world over are mystified by a Chinese bamboo that flowers at long intervals.

Historians report that the Giant Chinese Timber Bamboo produced a huge crop of flowers in the year 919. It bloomed again in 1114, again about 1725, and again about 1845.

Phyllostachys bambusoides​ flowers at 120-year intervals, with very few flowers or none in between. Flowering must super-stress the plants, for they die soon after.

Giant timber bamboo is perhaps the fastest growing plant on Earth, putting on nearly one meter a day to reach a height of 30 meters.

More:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/science/102841574/.html



More images of Giant Chinese Timber Bamboo:

https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrEwVql58paU14AwXmLuLkF;_ylc=X1MDOTYwNTc0ODMEX3IDMgRiY2sDZWFlcjdmOWNnbDI5ZyUyNmIlM0Q0JTI2ZCUzRGZFVE9PSzFyWUgzS3VfNWJGaWk4THF3a19jX3JYc19ya1E2azM1dGQ0N2NwM1EtLSUyNnMlM0RkayUyNmklM0RaNTRSU3JlNW5ZRU1nZFVtenJKTgRmcgMEZ3ByaWQDOFpxSGlLLnVUbWVkZmt5ZU9oSW11QQRtdGVzdGlkA251bGwEbl9zdWdnAzAEb3JpZ2luA2ltYWdlcy5zZWFyY2gueWFob28uY29tBHBvcwMwBHBxc3RyAwRwcXN0cmwDBHFzdHJsAzI4BHF1ZXJ5AyBHaWFudCBDaGluZXNlIFRpbWJlciBCYW1ib28EdF9zdG1wAzE1MjMyNDcwMjAEdnRlc3RpZANudWxs?gprid=8ZqHiK.uTmedfkyeOhImuA&pvid=uDtWtDEwLjHlO2d6WQqJMAkjMjYwMAAAAACVIAck&fr2=sb-top-images.search.yahoo.com&p=+Giant+Chinese+Timber+Bamboo&ei=UTF-8&iscqry=&fr=sfp#id=5&iurl=http%3A%2F%2F&action=close

[magicarpet]

1. Wow !

[Angry Dragon]

2. Strange things in the world

[Beartracks]

3. Wow! Isn't bamboo technically a grass??

[Judi Lynn]

4. Yes! Here's its Wiki:

The bamboos /bæmˈbuː/ (About this sound listen) are evergreen perennial flowering plants in the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. In bamboo, as in other grasses, the internodal regions of the stem are usually hollow and the vascular bundles in the cross section are scattered throughout the stem instead of in a cylindrical arrangement. The dicotyledonous woody xylem is also absent. The absence of secondary growth wood causes the stems of monocots, including the palms and large bamboos, to be columnar rather than tapering.[3]

Bamboos include some of the fastest-growing plants in the world,[4] due to a unique rhizome-dependent system. Certain species of bamboo can grow 91 cm (36 in) within a 24-hour period, at a rate of almost 4 cm (1.6 in) an hour (a growth around 1 mm every 90 seconds, or 1 inch every 40 minutes).[5] Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. Bamboos are of notable economic and cultural significance in South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, being used for building materials, as a food source, and as a versatile raw product. Bamboo has a higher specific compressive strength than wood, brick, or concrete and a specific tensile strength that rivals steel.[6][7]

More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo

Glad you mentioned it. Thank you.