Our neighborhood park is Cholla Cove and we frequently walk to it and around it.
On this day I took particular notice of an Agave, or Century Plant. “Century Plant” because it blooms once every, not 100 years, but 10-30 years. (The tall stalk is the bloom.) After it blooms, it dies. But new shoots come out of the base so maybe you can’t tell it dies. The fabulous magazine Arizona Highways had an article last month revealing that pre-Columbian peoples planted these for their use, according to a researcher that looks for plants near their habitations. According to Wikipedia, “The agave, in short, was meat, drink, clothing, and writing materials for the Aztec!” (Fermented drink, by the way.)
Now it’s an ornamental in the Southwest.