Bamboo

Pandas are bears that lost their umami receptors through evolution, leading them to eat bamboo instead of meat. However, their digestive systems remain carnivore-like, digesting only 17% of what they consume. To compensate, pandas spend about 14 hours a day eating.

Bamboo is not a tree but a grass — a cousin of rice. Depending on species, it flowers only once every few decades to 120 years, then dies. Since all stems in a bamboo grove grow from a single root system, when one flowers, the entire grove dies together.