Bamboo and the Chinese Spirit

THE bamboo plant, fargesia spathacea, is the staple food of the giant panda anda cultural icon in Chinese history. In sharp contrast to other plants, the bambooonly blossoms every 60 to 80 years, and perishes soon after. It takes one tothree decades for its seeds to grow. In the past 3 million years bamboos haveundergone more than 50,000 extensive blooms. Pandas survived by migrating,but this is no longer an option owing to the sharp decrease of bamboo forests. The lasttwo bloomings of bamboo caused 250 giant pandas to starve to death.

Bamboo and the Chinese Spirit

THE bamboo plant, fargesia spathacea, is the staple food of the giant panda and a cultural icon in Chinese history. In sharp contrast to other plants, the bamboo only blossoms every 60 to 80 years, and perishes soon after. It takes one to three decades for its seeds to grow. In the past 3 million years bamboos have undergone more than 50,000 extensive blooms. Pandas survived by migrating,but this is no longer an option owing to the sharp decrease of bamboo forests. The last two bloomings of bamboo caused 250 giant pandas to starve to death.