These are called Sisal plants, sometimes called Agar. It's a kind of cactus and you will have seen them when travelling in most hot climate countries. In fact some countries farm these plants and after many years they are harvested and shrredded then turned into string or rope.
We have a number of them around the garden and this particular one is getting excited, it seems to be getting an erection.
It normally looks like the one on the right in the first picture, then after a number of years, no one seems to know how many, it starts to shoot this enormous projectile from the centre of the plant which then grows at a rapid rate of knots.
The second picture on the right is only one week later and it must have grown at least 2 or 3 metres. After only 3 weeks from the start of its flowering, its starts to shoot the branches of its flowers.
After a few weeks of showing off it's flowers, the flower stalk will topple over and die. Sadly it will take the rest of the plant with it and this particular sisal will be no more.
Fortunately along the way, it's legacy will continue as it will have left behind loads of baby sisals which form around the base of the plant. In fact there are hundreds of the dam things which form from the roots of the plant and you can't get rid of them fast enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment