80 Year Old Agave Plant- The University of Michigan's Matthaei Botanical Gardens' 80 Year Old Agave Plant was finally cut down on Wednesday, April 8 after the almost century-old plant blossomed last summer.
The 80 Year Old Agave Plant has an incredible lifespan as it exceeded its expected death of 25 to 35 years after flowering.
"It has lived a full life," Mike Palmer said, a horticulture manager of the collections. He almost quit hoping that one day the 80 Year Old Agave Plant will blossom, MLive reported. The 28-foot-tall plant was chopped off for a minute by four workers.
"It was time to take it down. It was the natural process for the agave to die after it flowers and sets seeds. We didn't pronounce its death. It died naturally," he said.
"We had to take the stalk down because the plant is basically dead, and we were afraid the base would become too unstable and fall over and crush other plants in the conservatory," Palmer told the Detroit Free Press.
"The very base of it is still there. The leaves look really sad. In the next couple weeks we will be taking that out."
Palmer stated that cutting down the 80 Year Old Agave Plant was a sad happening after it had been a part of the botanical gardens from the last eight decades. It has touched the hearts of the people who cared for the almost century old plant native to Mexico and the American Southwest.
Many have been curious with the 80 Year Old Agave Plant, which aside from not blossoming for its expected years it also surpassed its expected lifespan. Agave plant normally has 25 to 35 years lifespan after flowering, they usually die, the NewsMax reported.
The 80 Year Old Agave Plant blossomed on April 2014, 80 years after it was planted in the botanical garden. Palmer regarded cutting down the 28-foot-tall plant as "necessary." He added it will sooner or later fall down since it blossomed last year.
The 80 Year Old Agave Plant had a memorable history. It was brought by graduate student Alfred Whiting in Ann Arbor from New Mexico in 1934 and since then it had become part of the botanical garden's collection.
The 80 Year Old Agave Plant was first planted in a pot for 30 years and was transferred to the conservatory around 1960s.
