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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: 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.

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  • (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"