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| The digital camera really does a great job on this shot, don't you think?
So what is it you ask? Well, the desert verily bristles with Agave cactus varieties. June
is a bit late for blossoms but this hearty example sprouts confidently out of a stalk
perhaps 10 ft. tall. No, the photographer didn't drag a ladder up the trail for art's
sake. The Agave was exceptionally obliging and fell against a dead soldier, perhaps last
year's bloom, and came to rest against the sky a perfect 6 ft up. If you haven't
witnessed the life cycle of these plants you've missed a pretty strange event sequence.
Normally, Agave are a couple of feet tall with no hint of a central spire. Stiff leaves
spread by pealing off a pod as bark from a sapling. Some years into it's life, the Agave
sends up a stalk which looks for all the world like a giant Asparagus, reaching 10 to 15
ft into the air. The 'Asparagus' explodes into the large yellow blossoms you see above,
and finally drops its soft flower material revealing a hard seed carrier shaped much like
a wasp's nest beneath. The stalk, seed pods, and usually the entire host plant dies away
in a last gasp effort to distribute it's seeds and promulgate the species. Very
interesting. |
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