Subject: Bamboo plant blossoming

From: John Booth <[email-masked]>
Date: 25 Jul 1996 19:18:28 GMT

Have a gardener friend who would like to know if there is
any information regarding the blossoming of bamboo plants.
He is in Germany, and many bamboo plants are blossoming this
year. As I understand, once a bamboo plant blossoms, it is
doomed to die. This is supposed to take place every 100
years or so.

The plant species that he is particularly interrested in
concerns the Phyllus stacchus (his spelling); I have
found in one of the WWW sites another spelling which
might be more accurate: phyllostachys -- but there were
so many suffixed names to that one, I'd have to send you all
a zipped file just to get them all in!

Can anyone help me here regarding information and/or information
sources?

Thanks in advance for any info.

---

From: [email-masked] (Richard Harmon)
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 22:48:36 GMT

>doomed to die. This is supposed to take place every 100

(snip)

>Thanks in advance for any info.

Hmmmmmm........  I'll piggy-back on this message with a related
question.  I'm new to botany in general and palms specifically.  I
have been told that Fishtail Palms die after producing seed.  Does
anyone know if this is true and if it can be prevented?

Thanks, Rick

---

From: [email-masked] (Nathalie Smits)
Date: 26 Jul 1996 09:07:09 GMT

Hi there,

I'm not a bamboo specialist myself, but I live near Montpellier, south 
of France, and there is a fantastic Bamboo park not far from here. It's 
a very touristic place, and they sell bamboo, books, ... They also have 
a catalog for mail ordering.
Unfortunately, I don't think they're on the web, and I'm not aware of 
an e-mail adress. But I'm sure they would send any information they 
have to bamboo lovers. 
Since they have lots of tourists, I'm pretty sure they can answer 
questions in english... Here are their address and phone/fax :
Bambouseraie Prafrance
30140 Generargues
France
phone : (+33) 66.61.70.47
   [beginning Oct. 10, 1996 : (+33) 04.66.61.70.47]
fax : (+33) 66.61.64.15
   [beginning Oct. 10, 1996 : (+33) 04.66.61.64.15]

Good luck!

Nathalie Smits

---

From: Gilles Guerin <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 26 Jul 1996 11:15:38 +0000

> >doomed to die. This is supposed to take place every 100

Some bamboo species are "monocarpic" which means they die after 
blooming. There is a lot of monocarpic species : some palms, many 
poaceae, some meconopsis (papaveracea family), etc. There is no way to 
prevent flowering. In general seeds of this kind of plants have a very 
high natural germination rate.

For bamboos, the story generally tells : when a particular species of 
bamboo is flowering ALL bamboos of this species IN THE WORLD are also 
flowering. This is very controversial. There is no certitude it concerns 
ALL bamboos of that particular species in ALL the world. Nonetheless, 
evidence of this phenomena exists for areas as large as regions, and the 
simultaneity of flowering in distinct regions in the world is 
documented.
Explanations could be : these bamboos are a unique clone, the natural 
cycle of germination is very stable, etc. For  smaller regions in 
particular in large bamboo groves, other biochemical reasons could be 
involved (flowering induction is under some hormones control and some 
are volatile which means the first plant to flower can induce the 
flowering of others). (One of this hormone is ethylene but I don't know 
if it is actually involved in bamboo flowering induction,  by instance 
this hormone has been widely used to induce simultaneous flowering - and 
fruiting- of ananas).

> >Can anyone help me here regarding information and/or information
Any gardening book on bamboos will tell the all story :-)

---

From: Albert Adelman <[email-masked]>
Date: 27 Jul 1996 10:51:49 GMT

The hardy clumping bamboo Fagesia murielae has been blooming in Europe for the past year or 
two. From all the reports I've heard they die after flowering. Bamboos will sometimes survive 
flowering but these do not. Several other species are currenly flowering. It is not yey known 
whether they will survive. I have specimens of Phyllostachys aurea var. and Bambusa ventricosa 
in flower. My Fargesia murielae has not yet flowered.

-- 
Albert Adelman
Burt Associates Bamboo
PO Box 719
Westford, MA 01886
Voice & Fax (508) 692 3240
Email [email-masked]
Home page http://www.bamboos.com/users/bamboo

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From: [email-masked] (Ian Staples)
Date: Sun, 28 Jul 1996 10:08:39 GMT

>ALL bamboos of that particular species in ALL the world. ...

It should be made clear that, even if this does happen in some bamboo
species, it does not happen in them all.

Cheers,  Ian S.

-- 

Ian Staples                        E-mail : [email-masked]
c/- P.O. Box 1054 MAREEBA          Phone  : +61 (0)70 928 555 Home 924 847
Queensland Australia 4880            Fax  : +61 (0)70 923 593   "   "   "

---

From: [email-masked] (Ian Staples)
Date: Sun, 28 Jul 1996 10:23:54 GMT

[email-masked] (Richard Harmon) writes:

>have been told that Fishtail Palms die after producing seed.  

At least some species known here in Oz as Fishtail palms are
monocarpic and die after flowering.

>Does anyone know if this is true and if it can be prevented?

If you're referring to the same thing, it's true.  I doubt that
it can be prevented, but perhaps it could be slowed by not growing
the trees as fast as they might normally.  Comments?

Cheers,  Ian S.

--

---

From: Stinger <stinger>
Date: 2 Aug 1996 22:07:51 GMT

You might also try the ABS or EBS home pages listed on my own bamboo resource
guide at http://nabalu.flas.ufl.edu/stinger/bamboo.html
-- 
Stinger Guala
209 Rolfs Hall
P.O. Box 110530
Gainesville, FL 32611-0530 USA