Bamboo Blossom

Bamboo blossoms very rarely. Don’t know the exact amount of time it takes to blossom. Some says it is around 45 years, some says it is around 60 years. But few have watched bamboo blossom. One may be able to watch this wonderful scene only one or two times in his/her entire life period.

I saw this scene when I went for a trekking to Chembra peak. Luckily I had the camera with me and took these snaps. Chembra peak near Meppadi is around 20 kilometers away from Kalpetta, the head quarters of Wayanad. While going from Kalpetta towards Meppadi we can see the blossomed bamboo just before reaching Meppadi.

Bamboo dies after this flowering period. The seeds are used to make a lot of varieties of food items. I remember my mother said, during her child hood, they went to the forest nearby daily, to clear the surroundings of bamboo bushes, to collect the seed that falls next day during a flowering period of bamboo.

Flowering of bamboo makes a lot of change to the eco system, since an entire forest will be out of bamboo next year.