My dad has a story about this plant that I didn't remember until I saw this. When he moved to California from New York, his backyard contained one of these plants in full flower. Not knowing what this monster plant was, and wanting to plant familiar roses and other plants he was familiar with, he hacked it down. His neighbor then told him it was a Century plant that had waited 100 years to flower (not true but it can be 10-30 years).
My dad is a superb gardener, but other than garden herbs, he never took to desert/mediterranean plants. As you might expect, there was a lot of rototilling and watering going on to fight against the environment we lived in...