Freakiest Plant on the Planet

Day 81

July 19th, 2013

Team Zybko

Since I was not gifted with a green thumb at all and paraphrasing what I did look up seems a bit daunting before my second cup of black coffee, 

I will let google do the talking. After copying and pasting my computer spell check went ape doo doo on a bunch of the fancy words but for those of you who wanna learn a little sumpin' sumpin', keep reading. 

Special thanks to my friend Jay for allowing me to take numerous photo shoots with this plant in his front yard.

A special sorry it was usually done in my PJ's and unwashed crazy looking self. 

The misnamed century plant typically lives only 10 to 30 years. A monocarpic succulent, it has a spreading rosette (about 4 m (13 ft) wide) of gray-green leaves up to 2 m (6.6 ft) long, each with a spiny margin and a heavy spike at the tip that can pierce to the bone.

When it flowers, the spike with a cyme of big yellow flowers may reach up to 8 m (26 ft) in height. Its common name likely derives from its semelparous nature of flowering only once at the end of its long life. The plant dies after flowering, but produces suckers oradventitious shoots from the base, which continue its growth.^[4]

If the flower stem is cut without flowering, a sweet liquid called aguamiel ("honey water") gathers in the heart of the plant. This may befermented to produce the drink called pulque. The leaves also yield fibers, known as pita, which are suitable for making rope, matting, coarse cloth and are used for embroidery of leather in a technique known as piteado. Both pulque and maguey fibre were important to the economy of pre-Columbian Mexico.

In the region of Tequila, agaves are called mezcales. The high-alcohol product of agave distillation is called mezcal; Agave americana is one of several agaves used for distillation. A mezcal called tequila, is produced from Agave tequilana, commonly called "blue agave". Low-priced mezcal may contain the mezcal worm, which pulque and tequila do not. Mezcal and tequila, although also produced from agave plants, are different from pulque in their technique for extracting the sugars from the heart of the plant, and in that they are distilled spirits. In mezcal and tequila production, the sugars are extracted from the piñas (or hearts) by heating them in ovens, rather than by collecting aguamiel from the plant's cut stalk. Thus if one were to distill pulque, it would not be a form of mezcal, but rather a different drink.

Agave nectar, also called agave syrup, is marketed as a natural sugar substitute^{[citation needed]} with a low glycemic index that is due to its high fructose content.

Exactly, I couldn't have said it better myself.

 A mere two months ago this freaky plant didn't have a hint of a center Jack and the Beanstalk type of stalk at all. Even though I have seen it in my neighbors yard from across the street literally a hundred times on any given day, I paid no attention to it. 

Yea cool, doesn't that plant make tequila or something? My fascination and interest ending after those brief seconds of curiosity. Well, that was before it began to grow like a teenager in puberty. Shooting up from the center maybe 3 feet a day. No joke, I'm serious. Growing so rapidly I had high hopes of making a home school project out of it, measuring, observing, researching, recording....spread sheet and all. Well that was back in May and it never happened. Similar to my thoughts on learning how to make pasta from scratch and weaving a family blanket together from the children's first hair cuts. #1 reason I have never clicked on Pintrest, ever. No more room really, I already have a mile long string of un-done fantasy projects swirling around in my big ole head. No worries, pictures tell a story too minus the scientific part, dated data and school credit.