Real Dictionary

century plant in American English
a tropical American desert agave (Agave americana) having fleshy leaves and a tall stalk that bears greenish flowers only once after 10 to 30 years and then dies: mistakenly thought to bloom only once a century
noun: any New World plant of the genus Agave, requiring many years to mature and blooming once before dying, esp. the widely cultivated species A. americana, having leaves in a basal rosette and a tall flower stalk

century plant in British English
noun: an agave, Agave americana, native to tropical America but naturalized elsewhere, having very large spiny greyish leaves and greenish flowers on a tall fleshy stalk. It blooms only once in its life, after 10 to 30 years (formerly thought to flower after a