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Project Noah Nature School
Agave vilmoriniana
This is a very well behaved agave (no runners, no sharp spines along the edges of the leaves). After 12 to 15 years it blooms, which is what these pictures show. It goes from no central spike to a 20 foot spike in about five days and then the spike blooms from the bottom up for about a month. Several months later, where each flower was, there is a new little agave waiting to fall to the ground and start growing, so there are thousands of little agaves by the end of summer.
Spotted on Mar 14, 2010
Submitted on Aug 31, 2011
1 Comment
Yes, that's the one. I didn't pay much attention until the agave's threw up their spikes. The estate where I work is only about 10 years old, so I can only assume the plants are roughly the same age. We had dozens of flowering spikes all at once and all within a relatively small area. It was a wonderful thing to witness, and I'm sad I'll have to wait another 12-15 years for it to happen again. OMG I'll be near retirement age :-/