During a recent trip to Sonora this past March, we took a quick tourist side-trip to the wonderful resort town of San Carlos, Sonora. This beautiful seaside resort is just that, small, picturesque, and not completely commercialized. It is home to many Americans and Canadians which I’m told make up 40-50% of the population. It was a beautiful day as we wandered into a protected sanctuary near the Sea of Cortez. Much to our surprise, we stumbled upon many agave plants in bloom scattered throughout the area.
Not knowing the history of how these plants found their way there, I would assume they were just scattered there by the whims of nature. What was interesting to see was how the plants were on the smallish side, yet their blooms were hugely disproportionate to the size of the plant. I would guess a two-foot-tall plant had blooms reaching upwards of 20 feet. Clearly no one was caring for them as they were slugging it out with the surrounding flora and fauna. Raw nature in full force.
These plants are truly miracles of nature which produce 40-50 thousand seeds per plant. Seeing agave pacifica plants growing in the wild is a rare treat as many have been poached and can only be found in remote areas of Sonora.