Flowering, die-back and recovery of a semelparous woody bamboo in the Atlantic Forest

► Flowering and death of bamboos may enhance tree seedlings recruitment in gaps. ► We studied the flowering pattern and seedling demography of a woody bamboo. ► The bamboo Chusquea ramosissima can re-colonize sites after die-back. ► The flowering pattern was asynchronous and occurred at different spatio-temporal scales. ► Seedling abundance of tree species was similar in flowered and non-flowered sites.