Bamboo in flower

Bamboo flowering

Bamboos are in the poaceae or grass family of plants (even the giant tree like bamboo found in asia)

One clump of our bamboo, Phyllostachys aurea, has come into flower. There are many theories, old wives tales and misinformation regarding the flowering of bamboos.

Depending on variety some bamboo have partial flowering others complete flowering although this could take years even decades.

With partial flowering remove the flowering culm before it dies which has the added benefit of opening up the clump.

The common belief is that Bamboo flower once and then dies. This is not strictly true. When in flower most of the leaves are replaced by flowers leaving the culm (stem) to rely on stored food reserves. If this food reserve runs out the culm will die. During complete flowering all the culms in a stand are at risk of dying.

Clumping (Pachymorph) and running (Leptomorph) are the two types of root system for bamboo. Pachymorph are more prone to dying after flowering due to their botanical make up having shorter segments between the nodes on their rhizome thus less food resevers to call on.