The stormy weather that heralded the beginning of the current colder temperatures in Bloomington also toppled the flowering stalk of the century plant in the Jordan Hall Greenhouse on the Indiana University campus.
On Monday morning John Lemon, supervisor of the greenhouse, noticed the single flowering stalk that was 30 feet tall and rose above the greenhouse glass roof was bent, with the flowers resting on the roof. By Monday afternoon, the stalk of the Agave americana plant was bent at about a 45-50 degree angle.
Even so, Lemon said it appears the flowers are still viable. He plans to pull anthers off some of the younger flowers to brush them on some of the stamens on some older flowers with the hopes of creating seeds. The plant has about 15 yellow-green flowers on the stalk.
“We already have some sprouts,” Lemon said.
The sprouts are growing around the base of the century plant, which began to wither about a month ago, Lemon said. Some of the young plants are still attached to the parent plant by suckers, while others have been potted and sit nearby. While the century plant isn’t 100 years old, Lemon believes it’s about 50 years old.
But it’s the flowers that have a distinctive and rather unpleasant smell — pungent was the word Lemon used to describe it.
In its native habitat in Mexico and the southwestern portions of the U.S., that smell would attract the bats that are the natural pollinators for the agave plant. Indiana’s bats are insect-eating species and don’t pollinate plants. Other species of agave plants have white flowers and have a sweeter smell. Those plants are usually pollinated by moths.
Once the pollination procedure has been completed, Lemon said he and other IU staff will begin to dismantle the stalk, first cutting the 10-plus feet above the greenhouse into segments that can be more easily removed.
Then, from the base of the plant, Lemon will cut off the waxy green leaves that are withering to reveal the base of the flower stalk, which will also be cut into segments and removed so other plants in the greenhouse soil nearby, including sprouts of the century plant, can continue to grow.
“Taking it out will be the hardest part,” Lemon said of the base of the flower stalk.
While most sections of the stalk will be cut into fairly short lengths, Lemon does plan to keep a larger section. He has such a section — now dry, brown and brittle slightly bigger in circumference than an adult’s fist — from another agave plant when it sent up a flowering stalk years ago. That plant was a different species and didn’t have as large stalk as the Agave americana does, he said.
