MeatMeter

The Twilight of an Agave Plant

Yes, I know that the relase of the iPhone5 is imminent and that school just started and your child just recieved an iPad and you need help setting up an AppleID.  I also find myself engaged with many of Apple's products.  I have not yet been involved in a "business" PC to Apple conversion project yet, however, I do see the paradigm shift, especially with the plethora of young adults who adore Apple products.  One of my current clients is making the switch one "PC" at a time.  I'll save the techno-jargon for later because I just wanted to share the photo above (yes, taken with and Apple iPhone 4).  It is a picture of a giant agave plant on the way to my mother's house.  It caught my attention a few weeks back when it shot out a 35 foot bloom.  It turns out, the Agave Americanus plant saves it's best trick for last.  Besides the fact that it produces many products such as fibrous rope material, medicinal products, sweetener and even a form of Tequila, it also waits to bloom just before it dies.  A kind of last hurrah.  It throws it's center bloom upwards in days, sometimes growing over 6 inches a day.  The resulting bloom is tree-like and looks pre-historic.  That rate in growth gave it a "hey I didn't see that thing there yesterday", kind of come uppance.  I noticed, today, when visiting Mom, that the bloom had actually uprooted the plant somewhat from its weight and that the plant was leaning over on it's side with the bloom stalk resting on a nearby roof of an empty building.  The plant proper had begun to degrade into the beautiful different shades of colors you see in the picture above.  Well done Agave, I hope, when my time comes, that I can go out in that kind of style.