A Rare Bloom After a Decade of Waiting

An agave plant at the Duke biology greenhouse blooms after 10 quiet years; its next step: death.

An agave plant close up of the light green buds next to a view of the towering stalk from ground level - the greenhouse is in the background

An agave plant at the Duke Bioscience Research Greenhouse has finally bloomed after 10 years. Last month the agave plant stalk first started growing, and it now stands at roughly 20 feet tall, sprouting flowers with nectar.

At this greenhouse, this growth has created a lot of buzz.

"They only produce one stem in their entire life and you have to wait 15 years for it to bloom and then it dies,鈥 said Jorge Fidel Gon藕alez, the greenhouse supervisor with the biology department.

Yes, this agave plant lives 10 to 15 years, sprouts a stalk and flowers, and then dies.

"It's amazing because I have never seen such a plant, this is the first time in my life, and I hope to see it again," he said.

Todd Smith, a lab research analyst with the biology department, called the bloom 鈥渁 botanical event.鈥

鈥淚t鈥檚 something you鈥檙e going to wait 10 or 15 years for and then all of a sudden it happens,鈥 he said. 鈥淎nd you may never see it again.鈥

Agave ovatitolia or 鈥淲hale鈥檚 Tongue鈥 is one of about 800 species of the plant from around the world that the greenhouse maintains.

The plant is native to Mexico and northeastern South America, generally in hot and dry climates. Agave is also used in clothing and tequila; also, bats, bees and hummingbirds drink its nectar.

Before it dies, Gon藕alez hopes the plant can teach him something new.

鈥淯p until now we have only seen the masculine parts of the flowers or just masculine flowers,鈥 he said. 鈥淭he spike grew for a month and then it bloomed from the bottom to the top. The flowering time has lasted about two weeks and counting. We would like to see how long it will take for the plant to dry up. We want to know if it produces seed and if the seeds are viable.鈥