Melocanna baccifera is a tropical bamboo species that has long fascinated researchers for its association with the occurrence of ‘bamboo death,’ ‘rat floods’ and famines in northeast India.
- Now, a study spanning 13 years has shed interesting light on flowering in Melocanna baccifera.
- Among other things, researchers detected a correlation between the sugar content in the fruit of Melocanna baccifera and the frenzied feeding and population boom in rats during ‘Mautam’, the cyclical, mass bamboo flowering that occurs once in 48 years.
- Researchers observed and listed a surprisingly large variety of animal visitors/predators attracted by the fruit and fowers of this bamboo.
- They also reported the highest-ever fruit production in a bamboo clump (456.67 kg).
