Image – Flickr/Mauricio Mercadante
The agave is a plant that only blooms once in its lifetime. After doing so, she dies. This is so because it is a monocarpic plant, like the Aeonium, the Puya, the bromeliads and many, many others. But within the bad, what could be considered good is that it is normal that they take a long time to produce their flowers.
Thus, we can have an agave for ten years or more, everything will depend on the species and its rate of growth, beautifying the garden until finally it is time to flower. But, what is the agave flower like?
Agave flower characteristics
Image – Wikimedia Commons
When we speak of a flower in popular or common language, we refer to what is actually a inflorescence. This is made up of a scape or floral stem that is much higher than the plant itself.; in fact, it can measure about 10-12 meters. In addition, it is relatively thick, reaching about five or six centimeters at its base (the higher it is, the thinner it is).
But what the flowers are, they begin to sprout towards the middle of that stem, and they do so in the form of an open panicle. In fact, in some cases they could almost remind us of the distribution of the branches of some conifers, such as the Araucaria araucana; in others, instead, they look more like fox tails. Each flower measures a maximum of ten centimeters, and is yellowish in color. An interesting fact about them is that the animal that pollinates them in their place of origin is the bat; On the other hand, in other regions, it is pollinating insects such as bees that take care of this.
Now, regardless of where you’re growing, the fruit is the same in all species of agave. Namely: they are trigone capsules that measure about 5 to 8 centimeters and contain small seeds.
What happens after flowering?
after blooming, the agaves die, but not before producing many young. And it is that, as we said before, they produce fruits with seeds, these have a very short period of viability (that is, they can germinate only for a short period of time). If during that time the adequate conditions do not exist for them to do so, that is, if it does not rain a little and the temperatures are mild, they will not sprout.
For this reason, agaves have evolved to produce suckers, since It is a much safer and more effective way of leaving offspring. And it is that a child that has already grown a bit, since it already has its own roots, will have more possibilities to continue forward than a seed.
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The Agave, the ideal plant for the garden
When cultivating these plants, the separation of these shoots is also prioritized to multiply the agave, since even if the seeds are in the best conditions, the expected results are not always obtained. But of course, sometimes it is worth planting them, especially if they have been obtained by crossing two different agave species to get hybrids.
Can the agave flower be cut to prevent it from dying?
By proxy, you can, but it would be going against the nature of the plant. And anyway, it would bloom again. I do not recommend cutting anything, unless it is completely dry because it is no longer useful for you.
If you do not like having a plant that dies after flowering once, it is preferable that you choose to plant another that produces flowers every year without shortening its life.
How long does the agave take to bloom?
Image – Flickr/Lino M
The agaves they will flower sometime between 10 and 35 years of age, spring to summer. However, this flowering can be delayed a bit if the plant is kept in a pot for too long, or if the weather is cool.
In any case, to keep them in good health, it is best to plant them in the ground as soon as possible, since this way they will be able to grow at a normal rate.
What do you think of the agave flower?