Farewell to the smooth agave at Singapore Botanic Gardens

SINGAPORE – A plant that has been at the Singapore Botanic Gardens for over 30 years is on its “death bloom”, with nature lovers urged to catch the plant’s final chapter.

In a Facebook post on Oct 2, the Gardens said that a Smooth Agave (Agave demeesteriana) “has begun its spectacular final act”. It is one of the few specimens received from The Holden Arboretum in Ohio in November 1989, and subsequently planted at the Sun Garden in 2008.

“Most agaves flower only once in their lifetime, spending their entire lives storing sugars in their base for this final moment,” the Singapore Botanic Gardens said.

But, in an upbeat note, the Gardens said “this farewell also marks a new beginning” as “its legacy will live on through its descendants”.

It explained that, alongside the flowers, small plantlets called bulbils will develop on the stalk, which horticulturists will carefully collect and spread to grow a new generation of Smooth Agaves, also known as a dwarf century plant.

Mature specimens of the plant flower when triggered by environmental factors such as unusually hot weather or seasonal changes, the Gardens said.

It added: “A towering flower stalk emerges from the centre of the mother plant as it pours every last reserve of energy into reproduction. In the process, it destroys its core meristem, its only point of growth.

“Unable to produce new leaves, the mother plant will eventually decline and die.”

Designated on July 2015, the Gardens is Singapore’s only UNESCO World Heritage Site.

ST has contacted the National Parks Board for more information.