Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Wednesday May 22 2019, @10:32PM   Printer-friendly
from the bad-news-pandas dept.

Reports from multiple places in Japan that several species of bamboo have been found blossoming since late last year. From Japan-Forward:

While some species of bamboo produce blossoms as often as once every three years, many of them flower at extremely long intervals, between 40 to 80 years. In the case of madake 真竹 Phyllostachys bambusoides, pictured at the top of this article, they only flower once every 130 years!

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.
...
2019 may turn out to be one of those years where major groupings of bamboo stock populations wither and die.

Reports of bamboo blossoms from central to southern Japan have been coming in:

I had never heard of bamboo blossoming before, assuming that it only spread through new shoots running underground. As always, Wikipedia has more info.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday May 22 2019, @11:29PM (16 children)

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Wednesday May 22 2019, @11:29PM (#846424)

    Not mentioned, but interesting is that bamboo is a type of grass.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 22 2019, @11:39PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 22 2019, @11:39PM (#846430)

    420?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 22 2019, @11:43PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 22 2019, @11:43PM (#846433)

      Only if you make a bong out of bamboo first.

  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday May 23 2019, @01:09AM (1 child)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday May 23 2019, @01:09AM (#846460) Journal

    Yes. I was wondering why multiple articles refer to "bamboo trees". The grass can and does get as tall as some trees, but they aren't trees at all.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday May 23 2019, @01:59AM

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday May 23 2019, @01:59AM (#846485)

      I planted some about 14 years ago, within 6 years it grew to a beautiful stand of 30' tall 2" diameter stems, I was starting to harvest the ones that were growing "out of bounds" for raw material - still have some curtain rods made from them. Then, 6 years ago we moved, and immediately planted a selection of 6 Phyllostachys species at the new house, 5 in one area and one in another. Of the five, one withered to nothing within 3 years, the smallest growing species is thriving, but no more than 6' tall, and the other 3 are barely 12" tall and only put up one or two new shoots a year. The one planted in another area (more direct sun, particularly since a massive oak tree got taken down by a tornado), has absolutely exploded, hundreds of shoots, topping 25' tall this year and approaching 1.5" diameter.

      No signs of flowering on any of them, yet. If my big stand goes, I shall be depressed.

      --
      🌻🌻 [google.com]
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 23 2019, @01:18AM (11 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 23 2019, @01:18AM (#846465)

    Which also doesn't flower very often. The common relatives that DO flower often are sorghum and maize(corn) varieties which flower every year, but differently from bamboo or sugarcane varieties.

    Bamboo should interest anyone with the land to cultivate and contain it. There are varities that can withstand mild freezes (down to 0F-10F) and grow as large as 6 inches around, up to 40-80 feet tall within ~3-5 years. Used as timber replacements they can cover the majority of your house construction or repair needs, or those of a growing farm with minimal added work. Combined with concrete or similar cements/geopolymers, you can produce structures far more cost effectively than with traditional building materials and do so in a way that helps you save large sums of money while ending up with a fine looking finished product.

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday May 23 2019, @01:54AM (5 children)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday May 23 2019, @01:54AM (#846483) Journal

      Interesting. My first thought about your post was, "How durable would a bamboo home be?" Then, I remembered the geo-engineered pine plantations. The pine sold at lumber yards these days isn't especially durable, either.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 23 2019, @05:13AM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 23 2019, @05:13AM (#846526)

        My first thought was how do you nail them together.

        • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday May 23 2019, @01:50PM (3 children)

          by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday May 23 2019, @01:50PM (#846639) Journal

          I don't think they nail a lot of bamboo, especially in traditional style homes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo_construction [wikipedia.org] There's a lot of splitting and weaving, and the living, growing plants are forced to grow in the shapes wanted. I think that if we Americans showed up on a home building site with hammer and nails, they'd be shouting, "Go home, Yankee!"

          • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday May 23 2019, @06:34PM (2 children)

            by Freeman (732) on Thursday May 23 2019, @06:34PM (#846738) Journal

            Bamboo can be utilized as a building material as for scaffolding, bridges and houses. Bamboo, like true wood, is a natural composite material with a high strength-to-weight ratio useful for structures.[1] Bamboo has a higher compressive strength than wood, brick or concrete and a tensile strength that rivals steel.[2][3]

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo_construction [wikipedia.org]

            Seems to be quite strong to me, depending on how it's processed, etc. There's no reason why some of the more modern developments wouldn't involve making it easy for a contractor to build your house. Hammers and Nails have been around for quite some time as well.

            --
            Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
            • (Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Thursday May 23 2019, @08:16PM (1 child)

              by ElizabethGreene (6748) Subscriber Badge on Thursday May 23 2019, @08:16PM (#846771) Journal

              The difficulty with bamboo is the lack of flat surfaces. It's a hollow cylinder. If you want a flat surface, e.g. for a shelf, cutting board, floor, etc, you have to mess with it. Specifically it is usually split into "strands", optionally cooked, steamed, mixed with an epoxy-like adhesive, and pressed into a mold. The Bamboo beam/log that comes out of the mold is then cut into "planks" that can be used.

              It's non-trivial.

              • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday May 23 2019, @08:25PM

                by Freeman (732) on Thursday May 23 2019, @08:25PM (#846775) Journal

                Quite, but it grows like crazy, and the eco crowd love it.

                --
                Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 23 2019, @02:00AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 23 2019, @02:00AM (#846487)

      I would be careful with that stuff. It is a rather invasive species and *VERY* though to get rid of. If you want bamboo make sure you WANT bamboo. Many of the people I work with spend many hours in their yards chopping and getting rid of it. The previous owners of their houses thought it was "oh so cute" in the 70s and now the stuff is like a giant wall that kills everything around it. I think only kudzu could take it on for how invasive it is.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 23 2019, @02:56AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 23 2019, @02:56AM (#846502)

        It is a rather invasive species and *VERY* though to get rid of.

        Don't worry, just wait 40-130 years and it will bloom and die off all on its own!

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 23 2019, @01:22PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 23 2019, @01:22PM (#846630)

        agreed. good stuff but be SURE you really want it.
        a family member also thought it would be "nice" to plant bamboo along the property perimeter.
        every two months it now needs trimming 'cause if it gets too big a bigger, more dangerous ladder will be required.
        i said "no" 'cause i saw the mountain of work waiting.
        fortunately i got a clause inserted when voting for the bamboo that i will not be trimming it. WIN!

        also, if in the jungle/forest near old bamboo... beware cobras.

    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday May 23 2019, @02:03AM (1 child)

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday May 23 2019, @02:03AM (#846489)

      grow as large as 6 inches around, up to 40-80 feet tall

      Even if you get the correct species, they can be particular about climate with respect to how large they actually grow. Surprisingly, when the giant 6" diameter species is moved too far toward the equator (below 30 degrees latitude), it doesn't grow to its full size potential.

      --
      🌻🌻 [google.com]
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 23 2019, @08:58AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 23 2019, @08:58AM (#846574)

        I'd actually read something similar a few years ago, but not having the room to grow more than a few pots worth of grasses, it hasn't come up.

        Another benefit, along with mint, is that you can basically grow their roots into a mesh underwater so long as you keep the main part of the plant in soil a few inches to feet above the waterline. So long as they don't have direct contact with water on the upper culms/blades, they will indiscriminately grow to the capacity of their container with roots spreading out into a mat filling the pool/pond or other water barrier you have them placed inside of. Done carefully, you can grow pretty much whatever varieties you want year round, only needing a bit of netting and something to keep the water warm during frost/freeze periods. Some of the hardier varieties don't even require that, although many will die back during cold weather.