Why did bamboo turn brown? Here's what we know about unusual phenomenon

Have you noticed groovy groves of green bamboo are now boring walls of brown?

The first time I spotted a dead-looking patch, I thought it was pretty odd since bamboo is a resilient species. Bamboo, not native to Virginia, can get out of control. It is one of the fastest growing plants on earth. My mind spun out of control with possible causes such as drought, frost, insects, rodents, disease or chemicals.

Wondering if bamboo in other areas was in the same condition, I drove past a few locations where I knew it thrived. Every thicket looked like it had been abandoned by Mother Nature.

In the heart of Chester, Caroline Creekman's bamboo was brown and droopy. She happened to be outside gardening, so I stopped by.

"Being brown like this is unusual. Possibly a late frost caused it, but I'm not exactly sure," Creekman said. "It's leaning over now because of the heavy rain."

Creekman pointed out that new growth is emerging despite whatever is going on with her plants.

Inquisitive as all get out, I contacted Mark Landa, Boulevard Flower Gardens at Ruffin Mill owner, to find out what kind of crazy is going on with bamboo. He also has never witnessed it being brown. Curious himself, he touched base with some of his peeps.

"They are turning brown once the plant sets seed. For some reason the plants are reaching maturity at the same time," Landa said. "The brown plants have seed pods at the top. So this is no dreaded disease or anything but more of a phenomenon occurring."

According to Landa, Virginia Tech may have some information coming out soon to explain why bamboo looks like it should be in Morticia Addams's yard. This inquiring mind, wanting to find out what the heck is going on, left several messages and sent a few emails.

Richard Reuse, Chesterfield Area Forester - Capital District with the Virginia Department of Forestry, responded to my bamboo inquiry.

"You have a sharp eye. I noticed stands of bamboo dying last year. It turns out that it is a case of gregarious flowering. It started early last year and is continuing this year," Reuse's email response said. "I have never seen this before and due to the infrequency of it occurring, I doubt many others have either. No one I have talked to in the past two years have ever heard of it."

Reuse shared a couple of links to shed some light on the subject. According to masterclass.com, Bamboo flowering is the pattern of flowering of bamboo plants. Bamboo [subfamily Bambusoideae] is a perennial evergreen plant that grows all over the world. Some bamboo species flower sporadically or annually, and a few bamboo species experience gregarious flowering or mass flowering. Gregarious flowering, an unusual flowering phenomenon, occurs only once over a span of decades, simultaneously with other plants of the same population, in widely dispersed geographic locations.

"The flowering of bamboos is an intriguing phenomenon, because it is a unique and very rare occurrence in the plant kingdom. Most bamboos flower once every 60 to 130 years. The long flowering intervals remain largely a mystery to many botanists," amusingplanet.com stated. "These slow flowering species exhibit another strange behavior — they flower all at the same time, all over the world, irrespective of geographic location and climate, as long as they were derived from the same mother plant. This mass flowering phenomenon is called gregarious flowering."

Thank goodness I am no longer bewildered by this crazy bamboozlement! Read this story at progress-index.com to watch a gardener show flowering bamboo to his viewers. He wasn't very happy because when bamboo flowers, it is in danger of dying especially in the case of gregarious flowering.

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— Kristi K. Higgins aka The Social Butterfly, an award-winning columnist, is the trending topics and food Q&A reporter at The Progress-Index voted the 2022 Tri-Cities Best of the Best Social Media Personality. Have a news tip on local trends or businesses? Contact Kristi (she, her) at khiggins@progress-index.com, follow @KHiggins_PI on Twitter @socialbutterflykristi on Instagram.

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This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Why is bamboo turning brown: Here's what we know about rare phenomenon