BOULDER, Colorado — Two "century plants" are putting on a show on the CU Boulder campus with once-in-a-lifetime blooms atop towering stalks, the University of Colorado Boulder said on Thursday.
The agave plants have grown in an outdoor garden on 30th Street for 30 years and are finally blooming. The succulents do this only once in their lives and only after they've grown for decades, CU Boulder said. It's hard to miss them – one of the plants has a stalk that's more than 14 feet tall.
“When I get a ladder up there to look at them, it’s a little farther than I like to stretch,” said John Clark, director of greenhouses for the department, according to CU Boulder.
Clark said the plants will bloom for only a few weeks in their home near the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology greenhouse. Then the plants will begin to shrivel and die.
The greenhouse team plans to grow new plants from the agaves' seeds, Clark said.
Agave plants aren't native to Colorado. The agave family, which is related to asparagus, includes several dozen species found in the southwestern U.S. and Mexico, CU Boulder said. A former CU professor emeritus of linguistics, Allan Taylor, planted these agaves in the mid- to late 1990s, the university said.
Rare agave plants bloom on CU Boulder campus
> Share your photos or video with 9NEWS through “Near Me” on the free 9NEWS app! DOWNLOAD APP FOR IPHONE HERE or DOWNLOAD APP FOR ANDROID HERE.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Latest from 9NEWS
9NEWS+
9NEWS+ has multiple live daily shows including 9NEWS Mornings, Next with Kyle Clark and 9NEWS+ Daily, an original streaming program. 9NEWS+ is where you can watch live breaking news, weather updates, and press conferences. You can also replay recent newscasts and find videos on demand of our top stories, local politics, investigations and Colorado specific features.
To download 9NEWS+ on Roku search for KUSA.
To download 9NEWS+ on Fire TV search for 9NEWS.