Agave puts on show before death throes
By BOBBY CRABB The Cactus Guy

Photo courtesy of Bobby Crabb The century plant, agave americana, at the Wharton County Historical Museum is shooting up a huge bloom stalk that will soon open into hundreds of blooms. After it forms seeds from the blooms the plant will die and have to be removed. It is worth a visit to the museum to see the end of this plant's lifecycle.

The big agave americana, better known as a century plant, at the Wharton County Historical Museum is shooting up a huge bloom stalk that will soon open into hundreds of blooms.

The plant, almost as large as a small car, is in the cactus garden at the museum.

Essentially all species in the genus, agave, die immediately after they flower.

Later this year the huge leaves will wilt, then turn yellow and die.

The plant is surrounded by numerous "pups" which it has sent out through underground stolens.

These "pups" assure the continuation of the species by becoming clones of the mother plant.

Bees will also pollinate the flowers when they open and thousands of seeds will form giving it another way to start new plants.

Officials at the museum say they may have to get a truck to pull out the dead plant when the dying process is completed later this spring.

Bobby Crabb invites folks to visit the cactus garden at the Wharton County Historical Museum to see this beautiftil century plant as it goes through it's final stages.