Bamboo

Bamboo trees are seen everywhere in Japan. Small bamboo groves are not unusual even in Tokyo suburbs. There is a bamboo grove also in the back of my apartment. Though the grove is cut down by the janitor in every spring, many bamboos are grown three floor tall until the beginning of fall and their leaves grow thick to make a shade on our veranda.
The speed of growth of bamboo is really amazing. They grow even more than one meter in one day at their peak, and they grow no less than 7 to 8 meter in one year.

Bamboo propagate not only by their seeds but also by lengthening their roots. The roots grow everywhere underground, and occasionally, they are extended 100 meter or more. The buds come out from each node of the root, and each bud grows to be an adult tree in only one year. A lot of small bamboo groves in our neighborhood may all be connected to a single root. Actually, in some farm villages, the field damages caused by the boundless increase of bamboos are at issue.

Bamboo flowers very rarely. In the end of its life cycle, bamboo makes its flowers bloom and scatters its seeds. It is said to be once every 60 to 120 years according to the species. And it is also strange that the bamboos of the same species which live all over the world flower almost simultaneous. About 40 years ago, many MADAKE (Giant timber bamboo) flowerd and died at almost the same time in various countries. Bamboo is the most mysterious plant as far as I know.

As a trivia note, bamboo and rice plants have the same origin. So the people eat rice in every countries where bamboo lives.