It sounds like an agave-century plant to me. Does it have sharp points on the tip of the leaves? The big plant always dies after it blooms. They were a hot seller for me when I sold plants at the flea market. The nurseries down in South Florida stopped growing them because of too many workman's comp. claims. Too many people got poked in the eyes by them.

Yikes! No, these don't have the sharp tips or serrated leaf edge. They look sharp but aren't. Maybe it's because they are a little leggy?

Kristiina

Maybe a yucca? They can get quite tall.

These are pups from mine -

Yes. It's a yucca. Spanish bayonet. The leaves get sharp as razors.

Crenda, You're certainly looks like mine.

Zackey, when I googled images of the spanish bayonet, the mature plants seemed much larger (taller and tree like) compared to the mom I pulled these pups from. This one was like a spikey globe that was 4-5 feet in diameter. Are there different versions of the bayonet?

Kristiina

Kristina, we have a lot of yuccas down here and I can't tell one from another! HD and Lowes don't help with the cute names they give to them.

Mine was a cane that sprouted 4 branches. Got it at HD - and planted 2 of them close together. (slaps self in head!) I didn't realize how much it would spread. They root easily and seem to grow pretty fast. Here they are about a year and a half old.

AFAIK, Yuccas do not produce bulbils. I would look toward Furcraea for an ID when your charges get a bit larger.

This post was edited by GermanStar on Tue, Jan 20, 15 at 15:36

Good point, GermanStar! The pups that I have gotten were growing next to the trunk, not from a flower stalk - a tidbit I missed when reading the original post.

Kristina, we may not be talking about the same plant after all. (That's why I posted a picture of my plant for you to compare. Babies may look similar.)

Ah. Yes. The babes look similar but this definitely won't trunk. And the flower stalk was easily 15 feet. I collected around 150 and guess half already had fallen on the driveway.

How big should they be for a solid ID?

Hard to say, Furcraeas grow fast when they like their digs. I can't have them here in 9b AZ (all Furcraea are very tender), so am none too familiar. Go through some Furcraea pics online, I'm sure you could narrow it down to no more than a handful of candidates.