After 14 years, Miami University Hamilton’s unique plant finally blooming

Some agave plants can be used to make tequila, but not this one, officials said.

The base of the plant resembles a very large aloe plant, but jutting from it and elevating at least 12 feet toward the sky is a thick stalk rising toward the building’s very high ceiling. The stalk supports several clusters of flowers that will bloom one by one.

“As this whole flower matures, each tier will start to bloom, go through its process and then finish off,” said Chelsea Obrebski, interim manager of the Conservatory.

“And it will do that sequentially from tier to tier to tier, based on when it was produced.”

One problem with seeing the plant flower: It’s way up in the air, and even a tall ladder that people can use with staffers’ help doesn’t make viewing easy.

The first of several tiers that started blooming, is “actually now starting to finish up,” and the anthers, where pollen is produced, are wilting away, and the pistil (which develops into a seed when fertilized) soon will start producing seeds.

There are two ways this particular plant’s pistils may have been pollinated: By insects that found their way into the conservatory through the door, or by Obrebski herself, who dabs her fingers on the anthers, which have the pollen on them, “and then just kind of touch the top of the pistil, which is called the stigma, kind-of just tap it on there with a little bit of pollen, so that it’s pollinated, and then the pollen tips can grow down, and then fertilize the little ovules down there, that will then turn into the seeds.”

Afterward, “the whole plant will start to die off,” Obrebski said.

The plant was donated, but, “It just never had a tag (identifying it) associated with it, and so now that it’s flowering, this is the most opportune time to figure out what species it is,” she said. Miami plant expert Michael Vincent visited Monday from Oxford to take photos and a flower simple to identify its exact species.

Even if the plant doesn’t develop seeds, there are “pups” at the base of the plant that the Conservatory can excavate and put into new pots, so those plants can grow anew.

The Conservatory is closed Mondays, but open Tuesdays through Fridays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m.