Forgotten Fotos of Americana Century Plant (2009)

My previous topic was a New Mexico century plant, a peewee compared to the Americana this time around. I'd pic'ed the peewee in 2012 and forgot about the images. Peek into "Forgotten Fotos of New Mexico Century Plant (2012)" (video, article) besides diving into the giant century plant (pix from spring 2009. I'd recently looked into a folder named "Ancient" and found these images.

I took the Americana pix in 2009 starting from the end of March to end of June, mostly weekly. The first eye-catch was the stalk starting to grow upward. The plant had reached about 10' high already. By early May, it already reached 20' and displayed branches and flower clusters.

The following resources provide some basic orientation of the Americana century plant:

• "Agave 'death bloom' in Oakland neighborhood stands at 27 feet" shows an agave not quite at maximum growth, but already at 27 feet. The branching out status, if similar to my pix, indicates maybe 75% growth completion.
• "All About Century Plants – Everything You Need to Know!" provides broad info and pix for agaves.

Once the century plant has completed its blooming process, it gradually begins to start dying off. ... it puts all its energy into producing a spectacular flowering stalk just once in its lifetime, before gracefully bowing out.

• "What to Do When Your Agave Blooms" provides overall info about the BIG EVENT. The site shows a partial close up view of stalk with flower clusters. The flowery display, if similar to my pix of most-robust clusters, indicates the show to be within 80% complete.

I still have agave pix I'd taken over several years that I plan to blog about. This one century plant project brought back memories of having seen numerous agaves bloom. Alas, the 2023 Arborgeddon seemed to have killed off many of them. FWIW, I have not spotted rising century plant stalks or branchings like I used to several consecutive years.