Painted Agave

Spring is typically the season of renewal, and so it is for the Agave ocahui, but in a very different way. For the agave here, spring is also the... more

by Douglas Taylor

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Price

$195

Dimensions

30.000 x 45.000 inches

Title

Painted Agave

Artist

Douglas Taylor

Medium

Photograph - Fine Art Digital Photography

Description

Spring is typically the season of renewal, and so it is for the Agave ocahui, but in a very different way. For the agave here, spring is also the end. An Agave only flowers once, and that is at the end of it's life cycle.
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As the agave matures, it begins to grow a "heart" of tissue high in sugar content. If harvested just before the plant begins to bloom, this sugary mass can be roasted to convert the resulting pulp into an edible, sweet food that was once a valued part of the diet for native peoples of the American Southwest and Mexico. A specific species of agave is now well known for having the sugary pulp fermented to produce Tequila.
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Allowed to complete its life cycle, the agave uses the enormous energy stored in the tissues of its base to produce a large stalk during the spring months, ranging between 5 and 20 feet in height, and looking for all the world like a gigantic asparagus spear which grows with astonishing speed. As the stalk develops, it begins to flower, thereby completing its life cycle as the flowers are pollinated and then form seeds. Even as it is flowering at the peak of springtime, the plant itself begins to die. And like the process that produces the brilliant colors of some deciduous trees in autumn, the Agave ocahui's leaves begin to loose their chlorophyll and may turn brilliant shades of yellow, orange and red. Thus, this brightly colored abstract image of the flowering Agave ocahui that I have entitled "Painted Agave". This species is native only to rocky hillsides of northeastern Sonora, Mexico, and the specimen was photographed at the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum near Tucson, Arizona.

Upon seeing the spectacular coloration of this plant, I had the thought to look for any flowering agave to capture more color. Unfortunately, Agave ocahui is the only one known to show this dramatic color at the end of its life.

Uploaded

April 3rd, 2022