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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.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 23 2019, @12:13AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 23 2019, @12:13AM (#846442)

    They produce seeds before they die. This has in the past resulted in a rise in rodent populations. Beware!

  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday May 23 2019, @12:21AM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday May 23 2019, @12:21AM (#846444) Journal
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Megahard on Thursday May 23 2019, @12:27AM

    by Megahard (4782) on Thursday May 23 2019, @12:27AM (#846446)

    In China the giant pandas risk starvation [upi.com] when the bamboo flowers and dies off

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 23 2019, @07:07PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 23 2019, @07:07PM (#846744)

    And the origin of "the year of the rat"

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 23 2019, @08:01PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 23 2019, @08:01PM (#846761)

      The bamboos have it wrong. This one, 2019, is Ms Piggy. On another note, Japan just switched eras to a new Emperor, effective 1 May 2019. Bamboo blooms are considered an omen of bad luck as the plants seed and then die, affecting many people, animals and industries. Hmmm....