Flowering of Bambusa tuldoides (Poaceae, Bambusoideae, Bambuseae) in southern South America.

Abstract

Flowering in bamboo is an unusual event. Documenting flowering individuals or populations provides valuable information about bamboo life cycles. Bambusa tuldoides is endemic to China but widely cultivated around the world. In Argentina, the first record of its cultivation dates back to 1943. There are no records of caryopses formation of this species in Argentina. We here report the flowering of a cultivated B. tuldoides clump and gather information about previous flowering events for this species in Argentina and neighboring countries occurring in the literature and herbarium collections. With this information, we estimate the flowering cycle of B. tuldoides in southernmost America to be approximately 23 years. Viable seed production is reported for the first time in Argentina.