Agave plant to produce 1 and only bloom, then die (AP) An 80-year-old American agave plant that will flower once then die is about to do the former. Probably. Housed at the University of the Michigan since 1934, the plant has grown so rapidly since the spring that at more than 27 feet it is now too tall for the Ann Arbor conservatory, which has had to remove a pane of glass to accommodate it. Just this week, one of the asparagus cousin’s flower buds took on an orange-like blush. Could that mean the buds are ready to finally bloom? “We’ve been guessing and speculating about when this particular agave is going to bloom for weeks and have been proven wrong every time,” said Joe Mooney, spokesman for Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum. The agave began to shoot upward in April, at which point a volunteer pointed out a flower stalk to Matthaei horticulture manager Mike Palmer. “And I went, ‘Whaaat?’” Palmer said. Since then, it has grown as much as 6 inches a day and forced workers to remove the glass to make room for its rapid ascent. Palmer called the pre-branching version of the plant “a giant asparagus on steroids.” The variegated American agave (Agave americana) was [...] newsinfl/agave-plant-to-produce-1-and-only-bloom-then-die/
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 11:45:17 +0000