Agave, 80, on track to 1st bloom, death

Friday, July 4, 2014

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — 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 blush, which might 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.

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.

The variegated American agave was collected in Mexico by famed ethno-botanist Alfred Whiting, who then was a University of Michigan graduate student. Known as the century plant because it blooms infrequently, it is native to Mexico and the American Southwest and typically lives 10 to 25 years in the wild before blooming a single time, then dying.