Subject: Re: bamboo
From: [email-masked] (Oliver Sparrow)
Date: Wed, 18 May 1994 08:35:35 +0000
Newsgroups: bionet.plants

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] "camden" writes:

> I have bamboo growing between my back fence and the paved alley. 
> Is it true that bamboo blooms after many years and then dies? 

Many species undergo synchronised flowering in the wild, then die. 
This is often followed by fire, in which the ground is scorched and everything
dies; except little shoots of bamboo which go on to repeat the process. Whole
hillsides in - for example - Nepal and Bhutan - are cleared of the rival 
rhododendron/ Abies climax vegetation as a result of this.

> With a guess at the species possibilities,  when is that likely to happen? 

The Asian species which go in for savannah-like cover are supposed to go
through a seven year cycle. I do not know the literature; bu tthe folk
tradition of the region is that when this happens, watch for bears, tigers,
other displaced persons with a chip on their shoulder.

> Are there any signs? What time of the year? What do the blooms look like? 

Bamboo is a grass and the flowers look like those of a large grass. Some
flower apically - which I understand to be the case for the climactic
types which undergo synchronised flowering (ethylene? a good/ bad year? simple
group maturity plus climate or day length signals?. Others flower from nodes
and have little dull affairs, arther like the anther cluster on maize.

> How long do they last? 

How long is a piece of string? 
_________________________________________________

  Oliver Sparrow
  [email-masked]