I’ve been shooting this century plant for (what seems like) several years. I could go back and check — I know it’s been longer than one year. I think it’s been two or three. I have loved this century plant.
Over the last few months I’ve noticed the flower beginning to give in to gravity’s pull.
I don’t know how long a century plant’s slow descent takes. Let’s hope it has (and we have) a while longer still.
The misnamed century plant typically lives only 10 to 30 years. It has a spreading rosette (about 4 m/13 ft wide) of gray-green leaves up to 2 m (6.6 ft) long, each with a spiny margin and a heavy spike at the tip that can pierce to the bone.
Two summers ago I witnessed two different century plants blossom. What I saw was jaw-dropping. Who would ever believe what transpired before my eyes. As I explained earlier, the plant will bloom at exactly the right conditions. So in one geographical area when one starts it’s blooming, the others will follow suit. The two plants were about 5 miles apart; but they seemed to be blooming in unison. What happens first is that a very large stalk emerges from the center of the plant that is as big around as a softball. I would drive by both of them almost daily and when I first noticed the stalks they were about 4 feet tall. Each day as I drove by those stalks had grown another foot or two. I often wanted to stop and just watch it for an hour or so to see if I could actually see them grow. This went on for about a month. Each day I tried to gauge the height they had reached…8 feet, 12 feet, 15 feet…onward and upward they went. You almost gasped at how much they had grown overnight. When they reached about 25-30 feet, they started sprouting limbs. Then the limbs began to reach out, some as much as five or six feet. It was quite a sight to observe. Then came hundreds of yellow blooms.
Okay person, would you stop taking pictures? If we head back now we still might be able to find that elusive century plant.