In 1903, the legendary Japanese naturalist Kumagusu Minakata (1867-1941) collected Hachiku bamboo, which blooms once every 120 years. This year, in Wakayama Prefecture where he lived, Hachiku bamboo is blooming for the first time in 120 years.

5 comments

1. Aww, that’s damn cool really. The ephemerality of human life in front of time but how some people can make their story continue even after their book ended is awe inspiring

2. And some ground solar company wants to put panels over it..

3. I was curious about this, because I didn’t think bamboo “blooms” since most of them spread by rhizomes.

   [This article](https://japantoday.com/category/features/lifestyle/%27once-in-a-hundred-year%27-sightings-of-bamboo-blossoms-reported-in-japan)is about a similar species called Madake:

   >While some species of bamboo produce blossoms as often as once every three years, many of them flower at extremely long intervals, between 40 to 80 years. In the case of madake 真竹 Phyllostachys bambusoides, pictured at the top of this article, they only flower once every 130 years!

   >Perhaps even more surprising than the long intervals at which they flower is the fact that all plants of the same stock of bamboo will bloom at the same time [spread seeds], and then die, no matter where they are in the world. Although the mechanism has yet to be explained by science, many believe there is some kind of natural “alarm clock” in the plant’s cells causing the behavior. The depletion of bamboo can have considerable environmental and economic impacts.

   That is super cool if true. I hope the alarm clock for the bamboo forest next to me is like, tomorrow..

4. That’s a long damn time between sex

5. No photo…