What is the fastest growing plant in the world?

It, facing the pond, is like jade, and would rather change than change, and its chastity is restrained.

It is elegant among all things, standing alone among the tall bamboos. Its chastity has endured the snow, and its lofty integrity is as high as that of the clouds.

It is elegant on the outside, simple on the inside, refined and unworldly, without any attempt to fawn on the world.

It is the bamboo , the "gentleman" that is famous far and wide and described by countless literati and poets.

Don't think you know a lot about bamboo, it has many little secrets. For example, you may think it is a close relative of trees, but in fact it is a family member of rice. For example, you may think it grows slowly, but in fact it can become a completely different person overnight. So today we will take a look at how many secrets bamboo has .

Bamboo forest in summer/Source: Photographed by Xia Wen

Part 1

The fastest growing plant in the world

Bamboo grows tall and straight, elegant and clear. People are confused by it and always think it is "a tree" - a woody plant. However, it is just a "grass" with a sturdy appearance. Rice is its real "relative" .

Seeing this, whether you believe it or not, whether rice recognizes it or not, bamboo is a legitimate grass plant. It's just that this child does grow a little bit faster, and standing next to wheat and rice in the "family", it really looks like an outsider.

How fast does bamboo grow? It is truly a "thousand-mile horse" in the plant kingdom - one of the fastest growing plants in the world . Some bamboos can grow up to about 1 meter in a day, and the tallest can reach 24 meters, a true "bamboo standing in a group of grass". It seems that excellence and sociability are like fish and bear's paw, you can't have both.

Part 2

Flowers bloom only once in a lifetime

People yearn for the spring when flowers bloom and the air is filled with fragrance. They place their hopes for a beautiful and happy life and noble qualities on flowers, and use flowers to express their unspeakable love and longing. They are in bud, pregnant with new hope; they are in full bloom, representing the inheritance of life and a hopeful future.

Throughout the ages, we have endowed the plum blossom with the qualities of perseverance and unyielding pride, shown the orchid its indifference to fame and fortune, and praised the chrysanthemum's quality of not fearing severe frost and not complaining about loneliness. However, bamboo, as one of the "Four Gentlemen", its flowers carry the tragic color of death and heroic beauty.

The pictures are: plum blossom, orchid, chrysanthemum

Source: China National Natural Science Museum

Bamboos do not bloom easily. They only bloom once in their lifetime, which also means the end of their lives . Each floret of bamboo has one palea and one lemma, several or no scales, three, six or more stamens, which are composed of filaments and anthers, one pistil, which is composed of ovary and style, one ovary and 1 to 3 styles. The florets are arranged in two rows and grow on short and thin flower axes. One to many florets plus glumes form spikelets, and many spikelets form inflorescences.

Picture of bamboo flowers

Source: Museum

How long bamboo can live is still a mystery. Most bamboos can grow for more than 60 years . Interestingly, most bamboos seem to be able to communicate with each other. No matter how far they are distributed, the same bamboo will bloom at the same time. This is because the bamboos in this area "are originally from the same stem and origin". They are connected by underground stems (bamboo whips), so a bamboo forest on a mountain will bloom at the same time. So the bamboo forests you see may all be from "one family"!

Image source: bamboobotanicals.ca

Such sudden large-scale "flowering events" caught both humans and giant pandas off guard. Since it takes 8-10 years for bamboo to regenerate naturally after flowering and dying , and our giant pandas feed on certain bamboo species, large-scale bamboo flowering and death will cause the giant pandas to starve. For example, it was reported in the 1980s that large-scale flowering of Arrow bamboo caused a "famine" among more than 200 wild giant pandas.

Part 3

Why does bamboo die after flowering?

As early as more than 2,000 years ago, the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" recorded the strange phenomenon of bamboo dying after flowering, "bamboo blooms, and then withers in the same year." Therefore, the large-scale flowering and withering of bamboo is also a hot topic of research.

Image source: nxy1615

The question of why bamboo flowers and dies is of great interest to both humans and pandas, but no answer has been found. Scientists have proposed many hypotheses, which mainly focus on the reasons for flowering, the physiological mechanism of flowering, and the molecular biology of flowering.

There have always been two explanations for bamboo flowering: the endogenous cause theory and the exogenous cause theory.

The endogenous cause theory holds that bamboo flowering is regulated by a unique biological clock . Bamboo flowering has a certain periodicity, and the period depends on its internal developmental rhythm. It will bloom after growing to physiological maturity.

For example, it is said that the "Bamboo Book" records that "bamboo takes root easily after 60 years, and bears fruit and dies after taking root easily", which highlights the 60-year time cycle and proposes that the reason for flowering is "easy rooting". American scholars have recorded that the flowering cycle of white bamboo is about 43 years.

The picture shows the flower branches of bamboo

Source: China Plant Image Database

Picture shows bamboo stems and branches

Source: China Plant Image Database

The external cause theory mainly believes that bamboo flowering is the result of induction and influence of external adverse environment , especially drought, high temperature and waterlogging.

American scholar Campbell once studied the flowering specimens and literature of Himalayan bamboo in China, and finally found that drought was one of the killers of this bamboo. Researchers such as Hu Yi pointed the finger at the abnormal climate of warm winter and cool summer in the "arrow bamboo flowering incident".

With the advancement of scientific research, scientists have also proposed some theories other than the "theory of internal and external factors", namely the "theory of cyclical aging and rejuvenation" and the "nutritional hypothesis".

Image source: guadua bamboo

Theory of cyclical aging and rejuvenation . The former Soviet scholar Klenge believed that the vitality of bamboo gradually decreases as it grows, and their aging process of gradual transition from vegetative growth to reproductive growth is not continuous, and is often interrupted by the opposite process of "rejuvenation". That is to say, when the bamboo becomes an old grandfather, it may return to "20 years old", and when it ages again, it may regain youth, so the aging and rejuvenation of bamboo are cyclical.

Nutritional hypothesis : Researchers believe that bamboo flowers under conditions of nutritional deficiency. When the nutrients needed for growth are insufficient, it often flowers and bears fruit, turning to reproductive growth.

Image source: veer gallery

Part 4

Don't worry, Panda.

The giant pandas are probably the ones who are most worried about the death of bamboos. After all, "having enough food and drink" is the greatest happiness in a bear's life. So is there any way to solve this problem? In order to make bamboos live longer, scientists can only use artificial methods to prevent the bamboo forests that have already bloomed from expanding the scope of blooming and dying, so that they can resume nutritional growth and rejuvenate their youthful vitality.

Currently, some effective methods include: providing sufficient nutritional conditions for bamboo, timely tilling and loosening the soil, cutting down flowering bamboo in time to avoid affecting the nutritional growth of other bamboos, paying attention to the impact of diseases and pests on bamboo, spraying pesticides in time, etc.

After these preventive measures, the problem of bamboo flowering has been effectively controlled, and the "health condition" of bamboo has been significantly improved. Seeing the eternal youth of bamboo, we can finally touch the furry head of the panda and say, "Don't worry, panda."

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Produced by: Science Popularization China

Author: Li Xiaopei (Chinese Academy of Forestry) Li Tong (Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Producer: China Science Expo

Review expert: Tong Yihua (South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Editor: Wang Tingting

The article only represents the author's views and does not represent the position of China Science Expo

This article was first published in China Science Expo (kepubolan)

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