Duke Krivoski, age 11, of Bedford, Penna.. for his question:

What is an agave?

Agaves are plants of the American desert regions where they share the dry sandy beaches with countless cactus plants. Altogether there are some 300 varieties of the agave, some of them very useful plants. The name agave, pronounced a GAA vy, comes from an older word meaning noble and there are times when the agave is a very noble looking plant indeed.

This is the rare occasion when it blooms   and it blooms only once during its life time.

Several of the agaves are handsome enough to be planted in gardens where they do fairly well far from the warm deserts. However, they grow more slowly   so slowly that we call them century plants, thinking that they bloom only once in a hundred years. Actually, an agave in a northern garden may bloom at the end of sixty years aid it is doubtful whether any of them live to be 100 years old.

In its native desert, an agave grows much faster and may bloom at the end of two or three years. The plant is a rosette of green grey, dagger shaped leaves. Each leaf is fringed with spines and tapers from a fat, fleshy base to a hard, sharp point. Water is stored in the fleshy part of the leaves and the thick skin keeps out the drying desert air. The prickles discourage thirsty desert animals from stealing the plant's precious water supply.

In the desert, the century plant agave may grow to be a rosette of leaves 14 feet wide in a few years. The leaves hug close to the ground and as the plant reaches its full growth it may put fcrtth runners or suckers. The time of blooming is a great event. A stem grows up rapidly from the center of the rosette, maybe 30 feet tall,

The upper third or half of the stem bursts forth in massive clusters of flowers. Each cluster is a crown of greenish yellow flowers. In the sun drenched desert, a blooming agave is certainly a beautiful and a noble sight. After blooming, the stem and the    leaves of the original agave wither away. But if the plant puts out suckers, they will take root and grow into a new generation of agave plants.

Some of the relatives    of the century plant are useful enough to be cultivated. Two varieties are grown for the tough fibers in the leaves. When dried, these fibers become sisal for making tough cord, binder twine and certain heavy duty ropes. In Central America, where the agave crops are cultivated, the sap from the leaves is fermented to make drinks.

The sap from the leaves may be also used as soap, for it lathers in water.