Deciphering the mystery of the tree that bears fruit is a disaster in China and India

What kind of tree is it that is associated with rumors of the ability to cause such a disaster that the ancients feared?

Bamboo flowering is a harbinger of disaster?

Bamboo is a plant that has become so familiar to everyone. But how many people have seen bamboo bloom and bear fruit, even though this is a plant that is grown a lot in Vietnam?

Moreover, not all types of bamboo can bear fruit, but only pear bamboo can bear fruit. Bamboo blooms for a period of 10-15 years, and the time for bamboo to produce fruit is from 30-50 years, sometimes up to 100 years. Although so rare, there is a saying in Chinese folklore: "Bamboo flowers, fruit is a harbinger of disaster", why do they think so?

The ancient Chinese believed that flowering and fruiting bamboo was a harbinger of impending disaster.

In fact, according to the recorded data, the state of Mizoram in the northeast of India has 1 bamboo forest, every 48 years the bamboo trees here bloom and bear fruit together. But every time the bamboo blooms and bears fruit, this locality also suffers from a disaster of disease and famine. The earliest recorded disaster was in 1815 and the last was 2006-2008.

In China, in the spring of 1976, a similar situation occurred in Wen County in Gansu Province and Wuping County in Fujian Province. After many large areas planted with bamboo suddenly bloom, bear fruit, and then die, causing many pandas to starve to death due to lack of food.

The phenomenon of bamboo blooming and bearing fruit is thought to be related to the famine in the Indian state of Mizoram.

Why is it that every time bamboo blooms, the fruit brings bad things? This phenomenon has attracted the attention of many scientists. Together they work together to lift this veil of secrecy.

Decode the mystery

After a series of studies, scientists have finally found the answer to the saying "Bamboo flowers, fruit is a harbinger of disaster". This claim turns out to be rooted in the characteristics of the bamboo plant.

Firstly, bamboo belongs to the Ministry of Herbal Medicine, which is a flowering plant but only flowers once in a lifetime. As can be seen, bamboo is like rice, after it bears fruit, it will move to the end of life. The interesting point of bamboo is that they will together flower and bear fruit at the same time.

Bamboos only flower and bear fruit before they die.

That is when they reach the end of life, they will simultaneously flower and produce seeds to increase the survival rate of the bamboo population. The flowering and fruiting causes bamboo plants to lose a lot of energy. This also leads to the mass death of bamboo forests after each bloom and fruit set.

In addition, scientists have added another theory that the mother bamboo tree dies to make room for the seedlings.

Second, the disaster caused by bamboo that the ancients mentioned is actually related to its fruit. The fruit of the bamboo tree, or its seeds, is considered an extremely nutritious treasure. Bamboo fruit is also a favorite food of birds and rodents. Therefore, every time bamboo blooms, the result is that in the bamboo forest, it always attracts countless mice and birds.

Especially the mice to be able to eat all these rare bamboo fruits, they began to reproduce more. With the rat's reproductive rate, soon an entire bamboo forest wouldn't be enough for them to eat. So the rats began to cross the mountains, wade across streams, and enter people's areas in search of food. This is also the reason why India and China have successive disasters after each time bamboo blooms and bears fruit.

Each time the bamboo leaves, it will bring a disaster of mice.

Along with the rat infestation, humans are also attacked by starvation and disease caused by these rodents. From the disasters that occurred after the bamboo flowered and produced fruit, the ancients gradually concluded the above sentence with the desire to remind their children to take precautions against this phenomenon so as not to suffer the unfortunate consequences.