September 25, 2009
Norman Dean of Cordova says people stop all the time and ask "what do you have growing there?"
What is that strange plant with its thick leaves sporting spikes that look to do harm, sending out offshoots that sprout up around it like so many children? Is it native to this area? To this planet?
The plant in question is a century plant (Agave americana), so named because it is said to bloom once every hundred years, an undertaking so strenuous that the effort eventually kills it.
This plant, which decorates the front corner of Dean's brick Cordova home on a street lined with well-manicured lawns, measures about 5 feet tall and its width, from tip to tip of the longest of its gray-green leaves, is nearly 8 feet ... (read more)
