Why does gregarious flowering occur?
Although a wide range of research is going on, the flowering of bamboo is still unexplained and mysterious. There are several theories on the causes of flowering and death of bamboos such as the ones relating the phenomenon to pathological, periodical, mutational, nutritional, human, resource matching, predator satiation reasons, and bamboo wildlife cycle hypothesis. Physiologically, the bamboos differ significantly from other vegetation because of the mechanism of flowering. Generally, most of the bamboo species flower gregariously at fixed intervals and all clumps including those of current year die after flowering. Majority of bamboos fall between the two physiological states of constant flowering (Bambusa atra) and constant sterility (Bambusa vulgaris). Some bamboos die within two years after flowering while others do not die but then growth slows down during the flowering period as in Phyllostachys and Arundinaria species. The flowering is like setting on an alarm clock which is s
