AMERICAN 
JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
Vol. VII March, 1920 No. 3 
THE LENGTH OF THE LIFE CYCLE OF A CLIMBING BAMBOO. 
A STRIKING CASE OF SEXUAL PERIODICITY IN 
CHUSQUEA ABIETIFOLIA GRISEB.* 
William Seifriz 
Certain plants are known to live vegetatively for many years, then 
flower and die. The most frequently cited example of this phenomenon is 
that of the century plant, Agave americana, which lives for a period of years 
without flowering, then sends up a tall, prominent inflorescence, and finally, 
after the maturing of the seeds, dies. This sexual periodicity is also char- 
acteristic of certain bamboos which blossom only after a cycle of years and 
then all simultaneously throughout an extensive region. The bamboos in 
the South Brazilian provinces of Santa Catharina and Rio Grande do Sul 
are said to blossom at intervals of about thirteen years, and Bambusa 
arundinacea on the west coast of Cisgangetic India blossoms at intervals of 
about thirty- two years (i). The complete and simultaneous dying off of 
the bamboos may in some communities prove disastrous by the wiping out 
of the chief available source of building material through the transformation 
of luxuriant bamboo forests into barren areas; or, it may prove of great 
economic value as a source of grain, especially when it comes, as it is said to 
(2), in times of drought and consequent famine. 
The length of the interval of years varies greatly in different bamboos. 
Bean (3) reports that ''Bambusa tesselata has been in cultivation for prob- 
ably over sixty years, yet I have seen no record of its having flowered 
anywhere." In striking contrast with this is the case of Arundinaria 
falcata var. glomerata which flowers almost every year on a certain number 
of culms. The latter is a case of partial or sporadic flowering as contrasted 
with the complete and simultaneous flowering which is the rule among bam- 
boos. Intermediate types also exist. Bean (3) mentions the case of 
Arundinaria Simoni which flowered on odd culms in the bamboo garden at 
Kew for several years. He says, "excepting that the flowering culms died, 
the plants were in no way affected. . . . They continued to flower in this 
way every year up to 1903, by which time we had almost come to regard 
A. Simoni as a perennial. In that year, however, the plants flowered on 
every culm, and, after producing an abundance of seed, died. After that 
* Botanical Contribution from the Johns Hopkins University No. 62. 
[The Journal for February (7: 45-82) was issued March 10, 1920.] 
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