Mass-flowering phenomenon
BAMBOOS seldom flower, and when they do it is unpredictable. Afterwards, the plant declines or even dies. In the wild, some bamboo species in a particular strain or region (known as a cohort) only flower after many years, possibly more than a century. And then they all flower together, perhaps taking a year or two from the first to the last.
This phenomenon is called ‘mass flowering’. Interestingly, if a plant from a particular cohort is dug up and planted somewhere else (even in a different country), it will still flower at the same time as others in the cohort. No one knows why.
The longest mass-flowering interval known is 130 years, with Phyllostachys bambusoides. In this species, all plants of the same cohort flower at the same time, regardless of where they are in the world, and then they die.