Agaves are a form of cactus, which usually appear in rosette form. They flower once, just once, then die. But what a flower it is.

The plant usually stands maybe 30cm tall. Almost overnight the stalk shoots up out of the centre of it, maybe 3 metres tall; so tall that it can't hold its own weight, doubles over on itself and forms an arc. I have some photos of this, but power lines and other visual pollution renders the background rubbish, so instead I decided to whack on the macro lens and go for the "small picture" instead of the big one.

This is looking up the stem toward the arc. You can see the seeds in the lower part of the arc starting to open up the further up you go, ending in fully expanded ones up at the curve of the arc.

For once I'm actually pleased with the 60mm macro lens's ability to accurately reproduce greens; I've always regarded that as being a touch dodgy in the past.