What does it mean for bamboo to bloom?

In the past, due to our misunderstanding of bamboo ecology, we mistakenly thought that the flowering of bamboo would cause devastating damage to some animals whose staple food is bamboo, such as giant pandas, because they only eat one kind of bamboo. However, experts believe that this understanding is wrong.

According to Zhang Hemin, director of the China Giant Panda Conservation and Research Center in Wolong, Sichuan, "Giant pandas have a preference for a single food and have long been used to eating only one kind of bamboo. After a bamboo blooms and dies, the giant panda will have to find other food, which will be a difficult process, in which the old, weak and sick panda cats may be eliminated. " The incident "will definitely have a negative impact on local giant pandas". But giant pandas will migrate with food, so even if the bamboo forest where they live begins to wither, as long as there are edible bamboo forests nearby, giant pandas will still survive. In addition, the China government's natural forest protection project and the project of returning farmland to forests have further expanded the habitat of giant pandas. At present, giant pandas rarely starve to death because of lack of food. [ 1]

Some old people often say that "when bamboo trees bloom, there will be great disasters" is not just superstition or rumors. Scientists have found that bamboo will bloom and wither on a large scale on the eve of some catastrophic droughts. It is said that because bamboo can sense some variations in the soil, it is spread to a suitable new land or wait for the right time in situ (such as after drought). In addition, there is a word "Cycas blooms".

On the other hand, bamboo rice (the seed of bamboo) is also an excellent food for rodents. Scientists have calculated that when there is a 50-year bamboo flowering cycle in northeast India, the number of rats will increase by four times. The sudden increase in the number of rats led to the rapid consumption of food stored in the village, leading to famine. Therefore, some people say that the famine happened only because of the sudden mass reproduction of rodents, not because of natural disasters.

As for which statement is true, it is still inconclusive.