Revisiting Century Plant Triplets, Weekly Shots Over 16 Weeks

In 2013, I'd taken pix near the time the stalks started their phenomenal growths. At the time, my camera was a Kodak that shot only stills (1760x1168 resolution). This time, I re-viewed my original shots, culling, editing, and organizing them to create a time-lapse slide show.

Section 1: 16-week view from a gas station diagonal from the plants
Section 2: Closer looks at each photo session

The 2013 individual articles contain my thoughts during that time period. Much of the content pertains to comparisons to previous plant looks. Compare the pix in this video from the pix in my 2013 articles.

Mysterious Peewee and "Righty" Removals

In looking over pix from Week 10 when the triplets was now a duo, different views showed positioning discrepancy. I can only infer my standing picture-taking positions affected the apparent plant positions. From the diagonal view, Peewee was in the middle. From the across-the-way and power-tower standing positions, the remaining two agaves are next to each other. (It would look like Peewee had been to the right.)

Unfortunately, pics from Week 11 and beyond show the only remaining century plant, which I nicknamed Lefty. (For more details, peer back at 2013's Week 10, Week 11 articles and pix.)

The 16-week Series on the Triplet Century Plants

Visit the blog articles and view the images, way different than the treatment I'm giving in the video.

Century Plant Triplets--Stalk Starts
Century Plant Triplets--2nd Week
Century Plant Triplets--3rd Week Higher Up
Century Plant Triplets--4rd Week Higher and Branching Out
Century Plant Triplets--5th Week Closer Looks at Stalks and Branches
Century Plant Triplets--6th Week Subtle Continued Growth, Gauging Heights
Century Plant Triplets--7th Week Lookit the Tops!
Century Plant Triplets--8th Week Lopsided Peewee
Century Plant Triplets--9th Week Peewee's 2x Leaning Angle
Century Plant Triplets--10th Week, Minus Peewee
Century Plant Triplets--11th Week, Oh, Solo Me, Oh
Century Plant Triplets--12th Week, Lefty's Bloom Clusters Declining
Century Plant Triplets--13th Week, 3 Successive Lefty
Century Plant Triplets--14th Week, Lefty and Another Week
Century Plant Triplets--15th Week, Lefty and Another Week Still
Century Plant Triplets--16th & Final Week, 3 2 1 0

Related: Agave articles search results

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.

Forgotten Fotos of New Mexico Century Plant (2012)

Last month I perused my computer for images of sky objects, predominantly moon shots. During my file manager tour, I ran across a series of pix of a smallish century plant that inspired me to make it this month's topic. It already showed its stalk pointing upward from its base of leaves, aka rosette. The stalk's branches and bloom clusters progressively grew in quantity and size.

2000 or 2012?

The pix date stamps indicated March 2 through May 8 2020. I went down the wrong garden path when I considered the pix to be from 2000. My title would have been a spiffy-sounding " Y2K Century Plant, 25YO Forgotten Fotos". I kept getting some naggy feeling about time frame, so to speak. I happened to also spot a folder that I apparently did some low-level edits, such as rotating, then resaving to png. Those images had date stamps of July 4 through September 8 2012.

I pored over folders and camera-issued sequence IDs. The agave pix numbered from 1875 through 2077 (year saved, 2000). I recalled that I have some pics with 1861, 1862, and 1866 numbers for sequence. The saved date was June 28, 2012. I ran across some other pix in the number sequence neighborhood, but they had 2000 for save year.

Google Maps Nudging Time Frame

I poked around Google maps to find the address where I'd seen the plant. I saw the most recent property image from April 2024, but also saw images from March 2022, July 2019, February 2015, April 2011, June 2009, and Dec 2007. Lucky me! The agave showed up in 2007, 2009, and 2011. However, it was nonexistent in 2015, 2019, and 2022.

I decided that July 2012 was reasonably more likely a time frame for my set of pix than 2000. A small brain nudge was a Google image screen capture July 4 2012—good enough for me to consider that date as an origin.

How Special Was this Agave?

What was so special? It was smallish, shorter than some other century plants that have rosettes taller than people and seemingly wider than a roundish car. This agave was a peewee that I could approach closely, its height maybe only 8' high. The diameter of the base (rosette) was about the diameter of a manhole cover. An oddity I've not seen before or since is the stalk's initial angle about 33° from the rosette, then its continued growth aiming skyward.

 I searched the web for smallish agaves. Two sources had images and descriptions that lead me to conclude it was a New Mexico agave.

"New Mexico Century Plant (Agave)" includes rudimentary info resembled my specimen. The following physical info piqued my curiosity:

Mature Height 15-18" tall
Mature Spread 24-30" wide

No Americana agave here! "Agave americana (Century Plant)" includes physical info as follows:

Height 3-6'
Spread 6-10'

Note: The images of the rosettes do not show stalks. Thinking that the height dimensions refer to distance from the ground to the tips of the tallest leaf/leaves.

"Agave parryi subsp. neomexicana (New Mexico Agave)" provides a good description of the plant.

Agave parryi subsp. neomexicana is an ornamental succulent that forms rosettes of ascending, lance-shaped, gray-green leaves with sharp teeth along the margins and a dark brown terminal spine. The rosettes grow up to 1.5 feet (45 cm) tall and 2 feet (60 cm) in diameter, usually accompanied by offsets around the base. Leaves are up to 1.5 feet (45 cm) long and 2.4 inches (6 cm) wide. This subspecies has slightly thinner, shorter leaves than Agave parryi subsp. parryi. Also, it has more open rosettes, larger flowers, and a greener, less glaucous coloration.

The mature rosettes, 8 to 20 years, send up an up to 10 feet (3 m) tall spike adorned with tufts of flowers on many lateral branches, usually in summer. The flowers are yellow to yellowish-green and red to orange in bud. Fruits are oblong, up to 1.4 inches (3.5 cm) long capsules with black seeds. The rosettes die after setting fruits.

Some time, I plan to do one or more pic tour of an americana century plant. I just rediscovered a folder of such pics from 2009! More recently, I collected daily pics of a century plant in 2017 from March 7 to May 5.

Century Plant Triplets--9th Week Peewee's 2x Leaning Angle

Uh oh. Peewee's leaning angle looks like it's doubled from one week to the next. The pixstrip shows the agave triplets pics for those April 22and April 29. (Click for larger older/newer side-by-side image.) Except for Peewee's bigger leaning angle, the plants look nearly unchanged, seemingly finished with growth spurts and obvious bulking up.

Last week in article #8, I mentioned I'd have "more info about and by the knowledgeable someone … about multiple-stalk century plants". My curiosity about multiple-stalk century plants vs. the set of triplets I'd been writing about stemmed (grin) from the caption for Will and Mary Ross' picture (about 3/4 down the webpage) that indicated a single plant with three stalks— "he was so proud when it bloomed -- and three bloom stalks is rare".

From having read that when conditions were good, agaves grew their stalks and bloom clusters amazingly fast as their last gasp for reproduction. Seemed to me that all the energy could go into only one stalk. Anyway, Dave Moellendorf, at the Austin Cactus and Succulents Society plant sale on Saturday, August 31, 2013, explains how a single century plant can have multiple stalks. (Yes, I'd like you to visit my very first YouTube video production—1 minute and 15 seconds—for more information about Dave.)



My thoughts of the pix for that day:

Peewee is leaning quite lot more. Thinking it's only a matter of time before the property owners cut it, if not all three plants, for fear of hazard or damage to cars from falling over. One other century plant in that clump bloomed just about a year ago, but was cut down.

Today, I also took a pic from the bank across the street. Quite a different view, with Peewee not looking like a leaner. THOSE pix were hard to time for shooting because of numerous cars passing right in front of the plants or stopped, compared to POV from the gas station square. (From the square in front of the gas station, the plants look like they're inline and evenly spaced -> * * *. )

The three asterisks represent the plants' apparent alignment and spacing. The following across-the-street pic shows that Peewee is to the right side of the other two plants and all three plants lean somewhat. In the approach-from-right-side pic, which I did not mention in my blockquote, Peewee looks upright, and the other two plants lean to the left.

 

Index to my agave posts, from the time I first spotted the set of triplets in early March to mid-June, about 3 1/2 months.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

2025 Slide-show version of the triplets saga-"Revisiting Century Plant Triplets, Weekly Shots Over 16 Weeks" (video | article)

Related: Agave articles search results

Century Plant Triplets--8th Week Lopsided Peewee

Happy Labor Day weekend, statesiders! In the April 22 image, the triplets are very robust. They all grew a little taller, and gained a smidge more bulk at the branches and bloom clusters. However, Peewee is looking unbalanced, maybe a bad sort of top-heavy. I initially thought that "leaning" would be a reasonable adjective for Peewee, but "lopsided" seems even better. The pixstrip shows the agave triplets pics for those April 15 and April 22. (Click for larger older/newer side-by-side image.)

From TheFreeDictionary, a definition for "lopsided" that fits well is "leaning or inclined to one side". OTOH, "leaning" could be an appropriate adjective also.

departing or being caused to depart from the true vertical or horizontal; "the leaning tower of Pisa"; "the headstones were tilted"

Come to think of it, Peewee's angle is similar to that of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Recently, a friend wondered about weight for a stalk and blooms. I was not able to find much information. Wikipedia had a general mention:

Each agave plant will produce several pounds of edible flowers during its final season. The stalks, which are ready during the summer, before the blossom, weigh several pounds each.

A few weeks ago, I emailed a plant-knowledgeable neighbor and asked if he might know the weight of a stalk and bloom clusters. He didn't know, but gave a guess that the stalk would have lots of water in it and that each flower cluster would be a few pounds. He suggested using geometry for calculating the volume of the stalk, then multiplying the volume by the the weight of water for the same volume.

Yesterday, at the Austin Cactus & Succulent Society 2013 Fall Show & Sale (Zilker Botanical Garden), someone helping out a vendor friend thought a stalk and bloom clusters could weigh a few hundred pounds until the plant dried out. Next week, I'll have more info about and by the knowledgeable someone for article #9 about multiple-stalk century plants.

Note: The sale continues today. In case you miss the sale, the webpage lists the expected vendors and contact info.

My thoughts of the pic for that day:

Even bluer day for taking pix! Blossoms more noticeably robust, especially at the tops. But, uh-oh, Peewee in the middle is leaning rightward. If property caretakers fret over possible fallover, they might cut the entire stalk before the agave finishes its natural course.

Just about a year ago, a century plant at the same location started blooming, reaching skyward, about the same stage these plants are now. Suddenly, it was gone. I'll see how the plants progress next week, keeping my fingers crossed for their existence.

Index to my agave posts, from the time I first spotted the set of triplets in early March to mid-June, about 3 1/2 months.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

2025 Slide-show version of the triplets saga-"Revisiting Century Plant Triplets, Weekly Shots Over 16 Weeks" (video | article)

Related: Agave articles search results

Century Plant Triplets--6th Week Subtle Continued Growth, Gauging Heights

The pixstrip shows the agave triplets pics from April 2 and April 8. At first glance, they don't seem to have changed much. (Click for larger older/newer side-by-side image.) The shot-put-ball-like blooms seem to show the biggest difference.

Gauging heights seeped into this article from curiosity over another set of century plant triplets.

During a Google search for "century plant bloom", I spotted the image, which also included a man and woman, good for providing relative height comparison. I estimated the century plants' height to be about 15 feet, based on approximately three times the height of the couple.

In my Century Plant Triplets--3rd Week Higher Up article, I'd mentioned using the nearby bike route street sign for a dimensional gauge. For my set of triplets, Righty's height looks to be about 20 feet here. (Click to see my image with 10 signs stacked near Righty.)

FWIW, a few weeks ago, when I went to measure the physical sign height to verify that sign's dimensions, I recalled I had to stretch my arm upward to reach the bottom of the sign. My height and arm totals seven feet, give or take an inch.

While I was playing with this pixstrip composition, I noticed that the distance between the two upper wires happened to be about the height of the street sign. Observations about the previous to newer week:

• Lefty looks to have peaked in vertical growth.
• Peewee grew about another half a foot.
• Righty grew about another foot.
• All three plants' bloom clusters at the end of their "arms" look a bit more robust.
• Peewee and Righty look to be fistbumping at one spot.

My thoughts of the pic for that day:

Barely sprinkly weather. Very similar to the pic from April 2, but branches spread out a little wider, bloomer clusters a bit bigger.

It's apparent that my thoughts on April 8 were nowhere in the neighborhood of heights like my thoughts today. Running across the century plant triplets that I found online nudged me to infer measurements and methodologies for the two sets of century plant triplets and distance between two wires.

Index to my agave posts, from the time I first spotted the set of triplets in early March to mid-June, about 3 1/2 months.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

2025 Slide-show version of the triplets saga-"Revisiting Century Plant Triplets, Weekly Shots Over 16 Weeks" (video | article)

Related: Agave articles search results

Century Plant Triplets--5th Week Closer Looks at Stalks and Branches

The pixstrip shows the agave triplets pics from March 25 and April 2. (Click for larger older/newer side-by-side image.) What a difference in sky contrast! Furthermore, the zoomed-in blue-sky one (more recent, left side) looks to be crisper than the zoomed-in overcast one (older, right side). (I just pulled up my original, unmodified snapshots and verified.) As an amateur photographer with no professional training whatsoever, the contrast differences surprised me.

For this pixstrip composition, I decided to zoom in more to the plants' stalks and branches. Observations about the previous to newer week:

• Lefty doesn't look much taller.
• Peewee reached past the middle wire.
• Righty extended past the top wire.
• Peewee and righty grew nearly another two feet.
• All three plants make me visualize aliens having multiple outstretched arms, holding up "blossom" clumps that resemble shot put balls.

I would have taken pix April 1 as my weekly schedule for Mondays, but I'd overlooked charging my camera batteries and didn't have enough juice to shoot. So I returned Tuesday. For the rest of my series of the weekly century plant pix, I shot only on Mondays.

My thoughts of the pic for that day:

Maybe not as pretty as it could have been because of cloudiness.

Index to my agave posts, from the time I first spotted the set of triplets in early March to mid-June, about 3 1/2 months.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

2025 Slide-show version of the triplets saga-"Revisiting Century Plant Triplets, Weekly Shots Over 16 Weeks" (video | article)

Related: Agave articles search results

Century Plant Triplets--4th Week Higher and Branching Out

The pixstrip shows the agave triplets pic from March 18 and March 25. The newer pic shows the stalks starting to grow branches. Instead of resembling giant, continuous asparagus spears, the upper parts parts of the stalks now look like crosses between Christmas trees and candelabras.

These stalks grew up some more, about half the sign's height for the first plant and another full sign's height for the 2nd and 3rd plant. BTW, during the week, I took a metal tape measure and measured the sign's height and width. Yep, 24 inches each direction. So, another week of the plants growing another two feet—well, ok, the two plants to the right.

My thoughts of the plants for that day:

All three stalks gained just a little more height. The middle one did not reach the wires. All three started sprouting branches.

Index to my agave posts, from the time I first spotted the set of triplets in early March to mid-June, about 3 1/2 months.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

2025 Slide-show version of the triplets saga-"Revisiting Century Plant Triplets, Weekly Shots Over 16 Weeks" (video | article)

Related: Agave articles search results