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19     adult bamboo waiting
DHJanzen100410.jpg
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Peering inside the stand in DHJanzen100409.jpg above, we are looking at perhaps only one individual - all those stems belonging to whatever plant was the superior competitor in this particular place. Perhaps the entire bamboo patch may contain only 10-20 individuals, each being vegetatively huge. And now these plants are looking forward to 8-10 years of photsynthesis, and photosynthesis, and photosynthesis. The clone does not expand much. So what is it doing with all the results of its photosynthesis? It is storing it in the underground rhizomes in preparation for the flowering and seeding event to come.
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