Allison sent these pictures of the Century Plant at the park.
She suggests that it is about 40 feet tall. And it's only a few inches in diameter.
That makes the slenderness ratio huge! Did you ever wonder who engineered such a structure, how it was designed, ---or even why?
Stanley makes a big deal out of a tape measure which can be extended 10 feet without bending. This plant has that beat by a long shot! And this one withstands Texas winds!
As Allison related, most years the plant is just a "bush." But occasionally it grows a stalk, as it did this year, and blooms as shown here. Because of the infrequent blooming, it is often called a Century Plant—even though it does bloom more frequently than once every 100 years.
