Abnormal bamboo grove that also affects agriculture and forestry ── Search for solutions

Bamboo grove (left) and well -maintained bamboo grove (left) (at the same Mojochiku Forest in Mukoichi, Kyoto)

Bamboo grove abandoned mainly in western Japan has spread, affecting agriculture and forestry.According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, bamboo forests have increased by 5,300 hectares in five years in the forest area of the nationwide, 167,000 hectares (2017).It is equivalent to 1134 Tokyo Dome.What has been happening in the lucky bamboo with pine and plums for a long time?

What you associate when you hear bamboo

What do you think of when you hear bamboo?Kadomatsu, Takenoko, Tanabata, Kaguya Princess, Bamboo Horse, Bamboo Crafts, Bamboo Charcoal, Edison Filament, Bamboo planted in Japanese Garden, and bamboo forest scenery seen in Kyoto and Arashiyama?You may think of what the heroine Kamamon Neko of the hot topic "Demon Blade" is on the other hand.I think there is something that each person envisions.In the following, we will introduce the changes in the situation where Japanese bamboo is located and the efforts to solve the problem.As a prerequisite knowledge, I want you to know about bamboo as a plant.

Grounding family plants

Hachiku flower.The arrow part is a stamen anther (in Kyoto)

The bamboo belongs to the bamboo subfamily, and is distributed in about 1600 types from tropical to temperature zone.Japan has about 100 kinds of species, and the distribution of Japan is located at the northern end of the world distribution.Looking at bamboo (large ones) in Japan, it is tall and tends to be considered a tree because the stem becomes a wood, but rice and wheat are listed as close friends in the cateFivery, and bamboo is huge.Some say that.Some explain that bamboo is not a tree or grass, but bamboo.Although it is such a thing, if you look at the flowers, you can see that it is a grass plant.Bamboo grows fast, and can be used as a material from the rhizome used for umbrellas, as well as the handle of umbrellas, to the tip of the ground, etc., which are processed into brooms.As a result, they are brought to non -growing areas, and have been used in a wide variety of useful resources around the world.

Blooming simultaneously for more than a century

Hachiku forest that bloomed all at once.Brown colored color (Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture)

A large Japanese bamboo has a huge forest and has a long maintaining maintenance.However, even in the same forest, the maintenance mechanism is greatly different between the forest and the bamboo grove.In the forest, the composed individual trees are generally maintained by growing and growing growing year by year, and the small trees are gradually increased, and the buds of the next generation are maintained.On the other hand, bamboo (bamboo -kan = Chikukan), which makes up bamboo forest, ends the growth and growth growth in just a few months from the bamboo shoot.Each bamboo has a lifespan in about 5 to 20 years, and is maintained by replacing it with new bamboo.And the rhizome that supports the growth of the bamboo grove above the ground is several tens of centimeters underground.In a bamboo grove, it works like a command tower, which is a growth point of bamboo on the ground (we eat sprouts by calling bamboo shoots), and the role of accumulating and carrying nutrients.Lean.In this way, bamboo forests have long been growing to bamboo shoots from the rhizome for a long time, but it is also known that depending on the type, once every hundred decades and decades, they have the unusual properties of ending their lives all at once.Because it has a long time to flower, it is difficult for one researcher to track, and there are still many types that do not remain in the actual situation.However, the type of Hachiku (Tamatake) grows in Japan is currently in the same time since the latter half of the Meiji era.This state is expected to last for about 10 to 20 years, and it is an opportunity for a thousand to study, and it has begun to be interesting.( * 1) ( * 1) "National R & D Institute for Forest Research and Maintenance Organization for Forest Research Institute / Hachiku, which bloomed all at once in 120 years, did not make seeds (AFFRC).Five.JP) ""