Greenhouse plant flowers before dying
The botanical garden’s Agave guiengola is flowering, something it only does after 20 years of existence, whereupon it dies. Not sure the Espace pour la vie is fair in describing the sight as “once in a lifetime”: most of us have hopes of seeing a few 20-year cycles before we too expire.
mare 16:05 on 2020-01-17 Permalink
Time to get an Access Montreal pass.
Dumb question: Could they just plant a few, every 5 years or so?
Kate 19:44 on 2020-01-17 Permalink
I’m sure they could, but I don’t know whether they’d choose to devote that much space to one species of plant.
It would be interesting in these times to start a “long now” greenhouse with plants that grow slowly and only flower over long periods. I was reading about bristlecone pines recently, for example. But we don’t really have a social mechanism for that kind of long-term planning.
I wonder whether our botanical garden is making any plans to help the biome handle climate change over time. Someone should go ask them and write an article.
Mark Côté 23:48 on 2020-01-17 Permalink
“once in a lifetime” could be a sort of tongue-in-cheek reference to the fact that the bloom is only once in a lifetime for the plant…