Furcraea selloa var. marginata

A close relative of agaves, Furcraea selloa var. marginata has put forth an impressive, gigantic inflorescence at the royal Botanic gardens in Hamilton, Ontario. The plant, which was accessioned by the garden in 1976, flowers only once and will die after blooming. Fortunately, many plantlets will form from the inflorescence, offering good opportunities for propagation.

Bellow is a press release sent to us by the Royal Botanic Gardens.

After three decades, an enormous false agave plant that has called Royal Botanical Gardens home since being propagated here in 1976, has finally sent up its first (and only) bloom.

The plant, a Central American native called Furcraea selloa, has a flower stalk measuring in at an astounding seven metres, almost reaching the peak of the Mediterranean Greenhouse where it has been growing since 1984. What is perhaps most spectacular, is that after three decades of growth, this bloom is actually the plant's last hurrah. False agave only blooms once in its long life, sometimes taking over a century before bursting into its final glory and then dying. Interestingly, it is almost 30 years to the day since this specimen arrived from Nassau Botanical Garden. RBG's plant records show the date that it was officially accessioned and entered into our collection as January 27, 1976. At that point it was a tiny bulbil: today, its basal rosette measures between two and three metres in diameter.

The Mediterranean Greenhouse is open to the public daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and winter admission is $2 (RBG members free). It is located in RBG Centre at 680 Plains Road West, on the Burlington/Hamilton border.

What is an accession record? Botanical gardens, like all museums, maintain meticulous records documenting the individual specimens that make up their collections. Each specimen is numbered, and a permanent record maintained of its background, parentage or source, status and location. Accession records and corresponding plant labelling are key features that set botanical gardens apart from other public gardens and parks.

Links:

• Royal Botanic Gardens homepage of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Hamilton


• Furcraea selloa a page from The Ruth Bankroft garden featuring the species


• Furcraea selloa Images of the species are rare on the web. Here are two from the Botanical Department - University of Catania, Italy


• Furcraea selloa flowers Here is a close-up view of the flowers from the University of Wroclaw, Poland

Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 10:36 AM on January 25, 2006

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