From the Gallery of China: Chinese painting mounted on silk brocade. Artist: Yi Zhong
The amazing thing about bamboos is that they are relentless. They grow indiscriminately. They are resistant to everything. Bamboos look lithe and graceful when moved by the wind. Bamboo groves can be overwhelming b/c of their rapid growth rate. They can stand up to 0 degrees and will withstand even frost. The running bamboos have a growth cycle that begins in March or April - which is the reason for Japan's spring season being called bamboo autumn.
The truly amazing thing about bamboos, which also happens to lend the tropical tree image a tinge of sadness, is that bamboos flower once every 100 years or so, and when they do flower they will die... Some plant growers try to stop bamboos from flowering -- thereby staving off its dying -- by adding fertilizer. While I don't know the details of the process, I just feel terribly sad. For the bamboo, flowering isn't a part of its life-giving process. It doesn't represent new life. For the bamboo, the flower isn't just a small symbol of grace and beauty, b/c the onset of such beauty heralds the death of the plant...
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