Dateline, July 28, 2013. The 75 year old
Agave americana at Allan Gardens has bloomed. A native of Mexico, it has been cultivated all over the world as an ornamental plant. In Mexico various cultivars of the Agave have been used to distill alcohol and to make Agave nectar, as the sap is very sweet.
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| A view of the side of the Cactus house at Allen Gardens. You can see the Agave flower spike in the centre of the photograph, poking through the glass. |
The plant is monocarpic. In its native habitat, it grows for about 20 to 30 years, it blooms once and then it dies. Cactus and Succulent experts judge the Allan Gardens specimen to be about 75 years old. Our colder climate has slowed its growth, and in fact this is why the plant is nicknamed the "Century Plant" as when it was first introduced to Northern Europe it seemed to take forever before it bloomed.
The Allan Gardens Agave put out its flower stalk in March and due to the extreme heat we've been experiencing in Toronto lately, the stalk shot up and was in danger of smashing into the greenhouse glass. Drastic measures were taken; a corner of the glass was cut out and the flower stalk allowed to continue its way sky ward.
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| The Agave stalk looks like a giant asparagus tip! |
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| Staff at Allan Gardens padded the glass so the stalk wouldn't be damaged by rubbing. |
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| David admires the enigma. How did that flower get through the glass? |
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| Above the glass, the flower looks like a strange Pine tree. The bees were buzzing madly around it. |
The flower began to boom in June and now has almost reached the end of its life. The leaves are withering and turning brown, and soon the plant will die. The seeds will be collected and planted, and there's already an offshoot at the base of the mother plant, so it's not really a sad story, just part of the circle of life.
