Botanical Garden of Belgium

At the end of summer 2025, you could see something remarkable here in the botanical garden that you can experience a maximum of once in your life.

The black lacquer bamboo was in bloom, and that worldwide, after 120 years. When one black lacquer bamboo blooms, they all bloom. And that happens rarely. It had been since 1908.

But how does such a plant know that it is time to bloom again? How does it count the years? So far, it remains a scientific mystery.

Gregarious flowering, this is also what synchronous blooming is called. According to bamboo experts, this simultaneous blooming is not triggered by environmental factors, but by a kind of genetically programmed internal clock. Although it doesn't all happen so precisely, there is some leeway in the cycle. In 2022, scientists found that the black lacquer bamboo in Japan was in bloom. They predicted at that time that the species would also bloom in other locations in the following years.

Mediahuis België