Century Plant

Recently we had the opportunity to see a century plant.    A century plant is a member of the agave family.  It blooms once in 25 years…so no one seems to know where it got the name “century” plant.  I am also sure that I read somewhere it is also related to the amaryllis and  I can believe it because of the speed the flower stalk grows. 


 

Look at that …..it’s like a plant the size of a large table shooting a spike 25 feet into the air.  And it only  takes 6 to 8 weeks.  It is amazing and to tell the truth, even though we drive past this place everyday that spike was just about this tall when we finally noticed it…hard to believe!  Here’s another shot of it.





Here is a shot of the top of it….





It had a somewhat “Bonsai” look.  Really kind of cool.  In the first picture you can get a good idea of the plant.  Within two days of taking these pictures, they cut down the spike and removed the plant.  The energy it take the plant to create this spike, kills it.  And it looked old and dried up when we took these pictures.


We sure were lucky to be on the scene when this once every 25 years event took place!!  Oatman can be a really amazing place to be……even if it does have a lot of burro shit to watch out for!!