--- title: This 80-year-old Agave is About to Bloom description: It blooms once in its lifetime, and it's happening now. canonical: https://time.com/2908490/agave-bloom/ author: Bijan Stephen article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-21T21:00:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:11:00.595Z og:title: This 80-year-old Agave is About to Bloom og:description: It blooms once in its lifetime, and it's happening now. og:url: https://time.com/2908490/agave-bloom/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This 80-year-old Agave is About to Bloom twitter:description: It blooms once in its lifetime, and it's happening now. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This 80-Year-Old Agave Plant Is About to Bloom by [Bijan Stephen](https://time.com/author/bijan-stephen/) ## Bijan Stephen Jun 21, 2014 9:00 PM UTC by [Bijan Stephen](https://time.com/author/bijan-stephen/) ## Bijan Stephen Jun 21, 2014 9:00 PM UTC There’s a giant agave plant in [Michigan](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/06/13/michigan-agave-plant-set-to-bloom/10504291/). Its stalk is fully [25 feet tall](http://www.freep.com/article/20140613/FEATURES04/306140008/American-agave-flowers-University-of-Michigan) (where most agave plants fall between 15’ and 30’), it’s 80 years old, and it’s on the cusp of blooming. As you might imagine, hardcore horticulturists are ecstatic—blooming, you might say. “We’ve experienced a more than 50% increase in our visitors compared to the same time frame last year,” said Joe Mooney, spokesman for the University of Michigan’s Nichols Arboretum, [told _USA Today_](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/06/13/michigan-agave-plant-set-to-bloom/10504291/). “We’ll run another report when the agave is finished and my guess is that it will be even better than a 50% increase.” Unfortunately, the plant will die after it flowers, although it will leave behind many clones of itself, and potentially thousands of seeds (some of which visitors will be able to buy). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2908490/agave-bloom/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2908490/agave-bloom/"},"headline":"This 80-Year-Old Agave Plant Is About to Bloom","datePublished":"2014-06-21T21:00:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:11:00.595Z","description":"It blooms once in its lifetime, and it's happening now.","url":"https://time.com/2908490/agave-bloom/","keywords":["Newsfeed"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Bijan Stephen","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/bijan-stephen/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2908490/agave-bloom/","name":"This 80-Year-Old Agave Plant Is About to Bloom"}}]}] ```