Editing Bamboo (section)

=== Mass flowering ===
{{Further|Bamboo blossom}}
[[File:PICT0079 bambus-i-blomst 13apr2007 1200-81.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Flowering bamboo]]
{{multiple image |align=right |total_width=350
|image1=Phyllostachys Glauca 'Yunzhu' in flower.jpg |caption1=''[[Phyllostachys glauca]]'' 'Yunzhu' in flower
|image2=Bamboo seeds bunch 03.jpg |caption2=Bunches of bamboo seeds
}}

Bamboos seldom and unpredictably flower and the frequency of flowering varies greatly from species to species. Once flowering takes place, a plant declines and often dies entirely. In fact, many species only flower at intervals as long as 65 or 120 years. These taxa exhibit [[mass flowering]] (or gregarious flowering), with all plants in a particular 'cohort' flowering over a several-year period. Any plant derived through clonal propagation from this cohort will also flower regardless of whether it has been planted in a different location. The longest mass flowering interval known is 120 years, and it is for the species ''[[Phyllostachys bambusoides]]'' (Sieb. & Zucc.).<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Carl |last1=Veller |first2=Martin A. |last2=Nowak |author-link2=Martin Nowak |first3=Charles C. |last3=Davis |date=July 2015 |title=Extended flowering intervals of bamboos evolved by discrete multiplication |url=http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~ccdavis/pdfs/Veller_et_al_Ecology_Letters_2015.pdf |journal=[[Ecology Letters]] |volume=18 |issue=7 |pages=653–659 |pmid=25963600 |issn=1461-023X |url-status=dead |doi=10.1111/ele.12442 |bibcode=2015EcolL..18..653V |archive-date=2015-09-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150911202926/http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~ccdavis/pdfs/Veller_et_al_Ecology_Letters_2015.pdf}}</ref> In this species, all plants of the same stock flower at the same time, regardless of differences in geographic locations or climatic conditions, and then the bamboo dies.<ref>{{cite book |last=McClure |first=Floyd A. |date=1966 |title=The Bamboos - A Fresh Perspective |isbn=9780674061507 |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=Harvard University Press |page=274 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FlKneBvfDyEC}}</ref> The commercially important bamboo Guadua, or Cana brava (''[[Guadua angustifolia]]'') bloomed for the first time in recorded history in 1971, suggesting a blooming interval well in excess of 130 years.{{citation needed|date=January 2023 |reason=Previous source was published in 1966 and could not have reported a 1971 event.}} The lack of environmental impact on the time of flowering indicates the presence of some sort of "alarm clock" in each cell of the plant which signals the diversion of all energy to flower production and the cessation of vegetative growth.<ref name="Soderstrom, TR 1979">{{cite journal |last1=Soderstrom |first1=Thomas R. |last2=Calderon |first2=Cleofe E. |title=A Commentary on the Bamboos (Poaceae: Bambusoideae) |journal=Biotropica |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=161–172 |year=1979 |doi=10.2307/2388036 |jstor=2388036|bibcode=1979Biotr..11..161S }}</ref> This mechanism, as well as the evolutionary cause behind it, is still largely a mystery.