CACTUS DEATH-FLOWER A WAITED AT KIRWEE

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28451, 4 December 1957, Page 14

CACTUS DEATH-FLOWER A WAITED AT KIRWEE

Some <Jay soon a cactus plant at Kirwee will flower for the first and only time. Then, after growing for what is thought to be at least 50 years, and possibly much longer, in the garden of Mr H. J. Devonshire, it will wither and die. The Devonshire family has watched the plant grow for 25' years, and a few weeks ago a flower stem began to sprout from' the base of the shrubby 6ft cactusJ This stem has been growing at the rate of 4in a day. It is now more than Bft in height. Cactus experts say that it is probably an agave, a so-called American aloe, although the agave is of a different plant order. It has an immensely tough fibre in the leaves, which is used by the Indians for fabrics, and in Ecuador the spongy substance of flower stem has been used instead of tinder. The schools there used the leaves for paper, and the juice, taken just before flowering, is used to make an intoxicating beverage. But in spite of ail these valuable properties, the interest in the growth of these plants in New Zealand is purely aesthetic and horticultural. There are not many of them about and they do not like the cold. There are several examples at Clifton, and when one flowers the word goes around and it attracts the attention of many horticulturists. The flower stem of the Kirwee agave is about 4in thick. Mrs! Devonshire said yesterday that! the tip of the stem is also a

weather vane. She can listen to a radio broadcast of the weather forecast, look out at the cactus, and see the top curling to the direction from which the wind will blow.

Because of the delayed flower-, ing this cactus has been called, the “century plant.” But this overestimates its lifetime. Not all wait 50 years to flower and die, though Mrs Devonshire says that this example may have been growing for as long as 75 years. I In their native desert soil they have been seen to grow as much as 2ft in 24 hours.

I When the parent plant has died, and it is not known yet when the [death-flowering will be. new cacti | which are already springing up . around its roots will take its place.