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The century plant springs a surprise

London: For the anxious father it was months of waiting, watching and preparing — then go away for two days and miss the whole thing. In the case of Nigel Brown’s happy event, his baby is a two-metre flower stalk flapping about in the wind over a six-metre “century plant,” and its explosive birth has trashed his glasshouse.

The plant, Agave americana, has evolved to withstand the arid climate of Mexico: it can grow slowly over decades to an enormous size, then flowers just once. Its common name is the century plant because it was thought to flower only once in 100 years: many British botanists have waited their entire professional lives to see one flower.

“I dumbfounded when I came back on Monday and saw it,” Dr. Brown, curator of the Bangor University botanical gardens, said. “It had grown 1.8 metre in the two days I was away, smashing straight through the glass, which after 28 years watching over it seemed a bit of a shock.”

The plant has now put on another four metres, and is waving like a flagpole over the ruined roof of the glasshouse. It was a proud moment for Dr. Brown, who as a student in 1979 personally transplanted the then kitchen window sill sized baby, probably about five years old, into the university’s new display of cacti and succulents. For a few years after he transplanted it, it sat quietly in its corner not doing very much.

As he graduated, and eventually became boss of the botanic gardens where he had first been a student volunteer, it started to hurl out new leaves as thick as his arm, until it took over the entire south-eastern corner of the glasshouse. In the next few weeks it will set between 100,000 and one million seeds, which if it were not designed for the Mexican desert rather than the bracing sea air of north Wales, could have turned the whole region into a forest of his botanical grandchildren.

The plant, and the publicity, could not have come at a better time for his beloved garden. Last year the university, concerned about the maintenance cost, discussed closing it, and it was only saved by a public outcry — but the gardener was made redundant, which is why Dr. Brown was rarely out of sight of his precious plant.

What happens next leaves Dr. Brown struggling for scientific detachment: the plant, which saves all its energy for one explosive flowering, attracting insects, birds and even bats from miles around to scatter the seeds, dies.

“It is rather sad. Already the leaves have started to shrivel, and eventually they will die completely, leaving only the flower stalk — which is now as thick as my calf — which could last for a few years but will eventually rot too,” he said.

“We will of course be saving the seed, and we have a few small plants ready, so we will obviously be replacing it — but this time a little further from the glass.” — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2007

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