Visitors to the Highway 28 Yard Sale last Saturday may have happened upon a sight that some will never see again, a century plant blooming in the yard of David and Norma Yelverton of Magee.
Despite its name, the plant actually grows for 20 to 40 years, blooms once, drops its seed and dies, exhausted by the process of sending up one tall spike on which its compact yellowish blooms grow.
The Yelvertons say they have had the plant for about 30 years, having moved it farther away from their house where it was growing in a black plastic cattle feeder that it still occupies.
The Century Plant belongs to the agave family and is native to Mexico and the deserts of the American Southwest. Its leaves are used for fiber products such as ropes and mats, and it produces a syrupy liquid that is used in sweeteners and in the production of tequila.
David laughed and said he would not be making any tequila out of his plant, but that people who came to the yard sale were more interested in looking at the plant than in the goods for sale.
The Yelvertons have another century plant that’s about 10 years old, but David said, “I probably won’t be here to see it bloom.”
