Bamboo Flower
The Rare And Unpredictable Bamboo Flower
We don't hear too much about the bamboo flower, in fact most of us may never have seen one. Unless growing bamboo is your passion, the bamboo flower is hardly a cause for excitement, at least as far as its appearance is concerned. Bamboo is a grass, and grasses typically do not have much to offer in the way of attractive flowers, and the flowers that do occur have no petals. It may not be entirely accurate to say that bamboo flowers are not a cause for excitement. At numerous times in history, bamboo flowers have been a cause of great excitement, often accompanied by a certain amount of dread. More about that later.
There are over 1,000 species of bamboo, with various species of bamboo native to all of the continents except Europe and Antarctica. Bamboo plants are highly valued in many cultures, used not only as ornamentals, but also for food, medicines, and building material. When used as an ornamental however, it is the plant as a whole, and not the bamboo flower, that is the center of attention. The bamboo is the fastest growing plant in the world, with some species in some climates growing at a rate of 2 feet per day. The bamboo is at the same time one of the slowest plants to produce flowers. In a way this can be a good thing, since many species die once they flower, either immediately or eventually.
Mass Flowering Can Create Problems - Different species have different blooming periods. Most blooming periods are a number of years long. One species goes 130 years between producing flowers. Some species produce flowers like clockwork, other species are completely unpredictable as to when they may bloom. And then there are those species that exhibit what is known as mass blooming, where all plants of that species may bloom at the same time, no matter where the plants are located, or what the climatic conditions are. In other words, the species exhibits global blooming. This is where dread comes in. When an economy is based to a large extent on a particular species of bamboo, and that species is one which dies after blooming, one would naturally not like to see it bloom. The situation would not be particularly bad if plants of that species produced flowers at different times, and new seedling could be continuously planted to replace those plants which have died. When a species exhibits mass blooming however, there is a problem. The whole species dies at once, which in some cases can be a disaster. The species which goes the longest without flowering, 130 years, is one which exhibits a mass flowering tendency.
Trying To Save Different Species - Exactly what is behind mass flowering is not well understood, but research into this mystery is on going in hopes of preserving several species, or at least in mitigating the effects of mass die offs. Saving the seeds is one approach, though for many bamboo species, propagation is far easier when attempted through cuttings or rhizome division than from seeds. The problems is, the cuttings and rhizomes have the same internal “clock” that the parent plant has, and the new plant is in essence a clone of its parent plant. When the parent dies, the plant produced from the cutting will often die at the same time. In any event, attempts to propagate plants from some of these species which have flowered, then died, have met with mixed results.
If your bamboo plant should produce flowers, depending upon the species it will either die immediately, die over a longer period, or continue on until the next flowering as if nothing has happened. You can always check into the species and see what your plant is apt to do, though it may take 50 or 100 years for a bamboo flower to appear.