Puzzled About I. tesselatus Playing Dead

[CJW]

Rick,
Last year I dug up some of the area and found a lot of dead rhizomes, but they didn't look diseased or chewed. No fungal colonies either. Just dead.

Your suggestion to pot up some of the remaining plant is a good one, and I shall do it. My first inclination is to feed it some chelated iron to see whether it affects the chlorotic appearance of the leaves. But none of the other bamboos around it are showing any chlorosis, so I have to imagine that it's due to another cause.

I checked my I.Tessilatus out and it seems to be gracefully spreading. Actually all the I.Tessilatus around here seems to be growing normally. No sign of it flowering. Stress can promote early flowering.
A few years ago (12 or so) I had a P.Aureosulcata go flower-up on me from being attacked by something. I have yet to figure out what it was that caused it, but I'll bet it was something in the runoff water was responsible ie) roundup or something like that... none of my other bamboos were affected.

[David]

About 2 years ago I rescued a large clump of vivax from a soon to be parking lot. The grove was unkempt, and it had wandered out of the yard where it had once lived, and thrived under the care of an aging local conservationist. The grove looked neglected and sick which I attributed to its lack of care, and poor soil. I purloined I mean liberated a healthy looking large piece of it at dawn on a cold feb day. I planted it down by the creek in black creekbottom soil with some composted manure, and kept it watered and mulched. That spring it sent up 2 culms, and a 3/4" one survived. The original culm cont. to fade away despite good care until all the leaves finally died off and stopped being replaced, and I cut the culm out. There are several 3/4" culms that are going through the same process of failing to thrive, almost like there is a clock ticking that says your time is up, and your friend can't help you. You're going to die!

On the other hand I have an elegans which is blooming on every culm now, and still sending up culms, and extending its rhizomes.

Tick, tock goes the genetic clock.

Maybe flowering is a response to the stress of the genetic death nell.?

Maybe there are 2 kinds of flowering. Stress response flowering, and time induced cyclic flowering, and maybe there is a combination of both and maybe all are "normal"?

[Roy]

....snip...

Maybe there are 2 kinds of flowering. Stress response flowering, and time induced cyclic flowering, and maybe there is a combination of both and maybe all are "normal"?

1..If you are making the case that it would be a normal response, as a survival tactic, for a bamboo to flower when under stress, then I would have to agree. Although I wouldn't think that I would say that it's normal for a bamboo to be under stress.

2..Time induced cyclic flowering---definitely agree.

[David]

Hi Roy,

I would agree with you that it would be advantageous for the plant to flower in the face stress, and that stress is not normal, but perhaps stress is unavoidable in the case of a 'death gene'. Perhaps the 'death gene' puts the plant under stress to accomplish flowering. ? If that were the case (and I'm not saying that it is) then the 'death gene' would be a normal part of the plants genetics, and stress would be a normal response to stimulate flowering.

This 'death gene' thing just got me thinking. Trouble is none of us will live long enough to learn much about flowering.

David

[Roy]

Hi Roy,

I would agree with you that it would be advantageous for the plant to flower in the face stress, and that stress is not normal, but perhaps stress is unavoidable in the case of a 'death gene'. Perhaps the 'death gene' puts the plant under stress to accomplish flowering. ? If that were the case (and I'm not saying that it is) then the 'death gene' would be a normal part of the plants genetics, and stress would be a normal response to stimulate flowering.

This 'death gene' thing just got me thinking. Trouble is none of us will live long enough to learn much about flowering.

David

Not exactly flowering, but a survival tactic none the less. I've noticed on tropical bamboos, if all the buds on the rhizomes are used up or damaged where they can't produce any more culms from the rhizome, then the branch complements will start producing a lot of roots and sometimes start producing a new culm if there is enough consistent rainfall.

[CadyG]

Too bad temperate runners and clumpers don't seem to have the tropicals' ability to root from branches.
Sure would make propagation quicker and easier.

David, with scientists trying to solve the mystery of aging and death in humans and other living organisms -- and making fascinating discoveries (such as the "fountain of youth" process that allowed certain worms to live six times longer than their normal span), we might get an answer while we're still on the mortal coil.

[BooKing]

Cady if temperate bamboos would root the same way as tropical bamboos, I think some of the northern bamboo nurseries would be out of business. There is a "conspiracy theory" going around now that Parvifolia can root from culms but unfortunately I haven't had the opportunity of having a single culm. Maybe some of the New England Bamboo nurseries would let me experiment with some of their Parvifolia.

[David]

Cady,

Can you imagine if we all lived to be 420-480years old. Elbow room would be at a premium, early retirement would be 300, ' Old folks homes ' would be 'Really Really Old folks homes', and Social Security would start at 365.

I can see the headlines now, Scientists Search Frantically for Long Lost 'Death Gene'. Death researcher I. B. Olefart recently overheard saying "This living forever thing is going to be the death of me yet."

[CadyG]

Great scenario, David. I think death has gotten a bad rap. If nothing died, we'd be living in heaps and heaps of billions-year-old bacteria, dinosaurs, and each other. Like a restaurant, patrons are expected to vacate the table at some point to make room for the next party.

BooKing, I was at New England Bamboo on Tuesday, and didn't see any parvifolia. If Chris DeRosa has any, he's hoarding it for propagation, like his Fargesia nitida "Jiuzhaigou," which sits tantalizingly in numerous pots but is not for sale.

I'm sensing that parvi has become the elusive 'boo Grail!

In other headlines, I was poking under the Pleioblastus chino "Elegantissimus" today, and found some non-chlorotic I. tesselatus. The l'il guys were only 6" tall, but green and happy. Maybe the Angel of 'Boo Doom didn't see them, hidden in the patch of Pleio, and passed over that small bit!

[BooKing]

It's hidden there somewhere...

[Jeff: Igor's Apprentice]

Well, having given this all of about two minutes thought- I would say there is a "destructo gene" at work. The gene probably proved to be a good adaptation because it allowed the next generation of seedlings (and there improvements) a chance to get a foothold.
Its oh so very poetic to say oh, the poor thing exhausted itself. But how many plants in the world that are not annuals manage seed production just fine. Seems crazy to think a plant as tough as boo would just be utterly torn-up by the reproductive process.

[Jeff: Igor's Apprentice]

It would seem that cross-polination would be evolutionarily advantageous. Bamboo seed in a surviving grove would have to be much further flung to get a foothold than seed from a dying grove. Nevermind the mechanics of getting far flung, far flung seed would have less opportunity for cross-polination than not so far flung seed. No?

[CadyG]

On the other hand, being self-fertile would be a survival advantage for a plant that typically forms a large grove that essentially isolates it from other 'boos.

If I recall college botany, the pollen of grasses is wind-borne (not pollinated by flies or other animals), is it not? How heavy is 'boo pollen? Would it travel well on a breeze? Or is it more prone to dropping down from one flower onto the flower below?

[Jeff: Igor's Apprentice]

Self-pollination is definitely a handy trick.
But doesn't cross pollination offer more chances for genetic advancement?
Clearly, most boo fertilization is probably self-pollination. Maybe though in the past there was more boo and more competition between boos. The boos that died after flowering had a whole bunch of seedlings take root right there intermingling for future cross pollination. The boos that didn't die- well, there seeds had to rely on something (wind or otherwise) to carry them out of the grove. The few seed that made it out of the grove were carried in diverse directions and some of those groves were eaten by the parent grove and other groves never find each other.
Oh I don't know- this is all conjecture, of course.
Cross-pollination may have nothing to do with it. But, it seems to make sense for the parent to get out of the way so as not to overwhelm the offspring. Kind of like Norman Bates had no choice but to get his overbearing mother out of the way. Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to get scary....

[Jeff: Igor's Apprentice]

One thing seems certain:
Death without flowering is just BAD evolutionary strategy.

I'm still thinking "Destructo". And it only makes sense that death and flowering are causally connected since the two go hand in hand usually so they almost have to be connected in the sense that David described. Flowering is triggered by a deathish decline and so sensitive is the trigger that stressed plants can be made to flower. And perhaps sporadic flowering varieties are just super-super sensitive to stress triggers that we can't even detect.

Its either that or an interplanetary interdimensional garden center doing plant recalls.