“A species of bamboo found all over Japan – Phyllostachys nigra var. henonis – is about to flower for the first time in 120 years, and then die.”
https://cosmosmagazine.com/nature/plants/bamboo-flowering-die/
I'm also curious about the synchronization mechanism. The mention of a localized flowering in the paper (which I haven't yet read apart from the abstract) seems to suggest that it's not independent for each plant (so either involves communication or synchronization on some external factor).
@robryk @gregeganSF hmm, how local? I read that as "a few plants" hence the question about fertilisation. Yeah, I probably need to read the paper!