Wild rice, hog's bristles and molluscicidal tendencies, that's Agave filifera in flower


Sometimes my topic is just an unusual or odd plant. Something I've walked past in Kew Gardens, or maybe read about in a book or on the web. Nothing fancy, nothing new to report, but something worth taking a second look at.


I've been watching this flower spike for the last few weeks. It's an agave, again. This time in the middle of the traffic island at the north end of Kew Gardens's Broad Walk, and close to the Orangery. It's part of a succulent garden designed by Eli Biondi.

This year the garden is breaking out into bloom almost daily. I'll include a few additional cacti pictures at the end of this blog but it seems to be a great year for them after we lost quite a few in the wet, rotting weather of June and July.

The good thing about taking photographs is that you look at the flowers more closely than you might just walking by. The colour is the first thing you notice: deep claret or port.


Then the unopened stamens, the same rich colour, look like wild rice on sticks. Focus a bit further back and the white bristles between the flowers stand out (they are not the stigmas).


What ever it is that induces the plant to produce the threads on its leaves that give it the species name 'filifera' do the same on the flowering stalk it seems. Although these are straighter and stiffer.


If you are lucky you might see what pollinates the flowers. Or more correctly, what visits them and you can induce pollinates them. Early this morning it was bees, and plenty of them.


There is no perfume that I can smell - neither sweet for insects nor musky for bats. Quite a few agaves are pollinated by bats, and the colour of the flowers is what you'd expect to attract that kind of visitor. Perhaps it's a mix of bees, bats and other things starting with b, or not.

Agave filifera comes from southern Mexico, in the States of Hidalgo, San Luis Potosi and Veracruz. I've never visited Mexico; the closest I've got is through the Border Trilogy of Cormac McCarthy, of which I'm reading the final instalment now. But that's up north and a somewhat bleak yet engaging view of the country.

Of more relevance to me here at Kew, perhaps, is the reputed molluscicidal properties of Agave filifera. This could have real applications during the current slug plague in London. Although the Olympics seem to have brought a little sunshine to the city, the predominantly wet and soggy summer has been very appealing to molluscs such as this one.


But to finish, a few of those cacti flowers I promised. These two species are also growing in the pedestrian traffic island.






Comments

Bom said…
Deep claret and port. I like your color choices. Makes me want to open a bottle for dinner.