Why Doesn’t Bamboo Blossom Every Year?
Because bamboo is perennial hapanthous plant.
Bamboo florescence is a natural phenomenon,and it is a process of producing seeds for reproduction.People in ancient China have observed this phenomenon.There is record in the book Shanhai Ching : Bamboo died after blossom.
Bamboo carries out asexual propagation . Every year, the shoots grow out of the ground from the bamboo whips and then develop into bamboo. The whip is not the root of bamboo ,but the underground stem.The underground stem can be devided into three categories: the monaxial stem can continue to grow,their buds grow on the two sides,and the side buds develop into bamboos. The sympodial terminal buds develop into shoots and the side buds become new underground stems which conbine with each other and turn to sympodiums,and the underground stems produce clustering bamboo poles ; the bamboo which the pandas like to eat belongs to this category,such as joy bamboo and corona straw bamboo. The third category is the muliplex shaft ,it is the combination of the former two categories.
The sexual multiplication of bamboo is just like other floriferous plants, first ithey blossom ,then bear seeds, and complete the growth cycle.The cycle of bamboo blossom is also different from one to another according to the category. Only a few of bamboos can blossom every year and after it they are still alive; they can still produce whips. While most of bamboos can only blossom once during their growth cycle;moreover they have a certain cycle , which is about 40 to 80 years. After blossom, the stem leaves turn to yellow and die. The underground stems turn to black gradually,and lose bourgeon ability. The seeds is called bamboo rice.
After the seeds sowing into the ground and budding,then they can grow into bamboos. Fargesia and corona straw bamboo belong to this category.The other kind blossom at different time.The bamboo won’t die after blossom, neosinocalamus affinis is one of them.The blossom interval of this kind bamboo is long, it is about 50to 60years. And some of them blossom once within one hundred years. However, whenever the bamboos grow out, as long as the the age of the whips are the same or approximate, the blossom time is almost the same.
bamboo lighting