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Taxonomy

Notes:

An accepted name in the RHS Horticultural Database.

Physical Description

Family Agavaceae:

Plants usually perennial, occasionally epiphytic, sometimes monocarpic or polycarpic, monoecious, dioecious, or polygamodioecious, small to gigantic, sometimes arborescent, usually scapose. Stems subterranean or aboveground, sometimes branched. Leaves simple, annual or long-lived, in terminal rosettes or occasionally cauline, sessile or occasionally pseudo-petiolate; blade linear, lanceolate, oblanceolate, ovate, or elliptic, fibrous, thin and flexible, thick and rigid or succulent, or fibrous, often glaucous, margins entire, serrulate, dentate, denticulate, corneous, or filiferous, apex rigid or flexible, sometimes pungent, often with short or long spine. Inflorescences terminal or axillary spikes, racemose or paniculate, sometimes umbellate, bracteate, often huge; bracts ascending or erect, occasionally reflexed, leaflike proximally, scalelike distally. Flowers 6-merous, bisexual or functionally unisexual; perianth of 2 similar petallike whorls, semisucculent; tepals distinct or connate into tube, apex glandular or glandular-pubescent; stamens included or exserted; filaments often broadened and succulent, glabrous, pubescent, or papillose; anthers versatile, dehiscence longitudinal; ovary superior or inferior, 3-locular or occasionally 1-locular, 3-angled, ovoid, or cylindrical, with axillary or rarely parietal placentation; style included or exserted; stigmas 1 or 3, 3-lobed or capitate; pedicel usually distinct, articulate or not, rarely absent. Fruits occasionally baccate, usually capsular and sometimes winged or lobed, or indehiscent and dry or fleshy. Seeds 1€“3(€“many) per locule, flattened, 3-angled, hemispheric, ovoid, obovoid, or globose.

Genera 17 or 18, species ca. 550 (9 genera, 84 species in the flora; 2 genera, 6 species introduced) : worldwide, primarily arid, semitropical, subtropical, and tropical regions.

There is little agreement on the treatment of Agavaceae. The group containing Agave, Yucca, Furcraea, Hesperaloe, and Manfreda generally has been accepted as the core of Agavaceae, or as subfamilies Agavoideae and Yuccoideae, but treatment of Dracaena, Sansevieria, Cordyline, Nolina, and Dasylirion has been varied. A. L. Takhtajan (1987) and R. F. Thorne (1992b) placed these genera in Dracaenaceae but treated them at different levels. Takhtajan located them in the subfamily Dracaenoideae within sections Nolineae (Nolina and Dasylirion), Sansevierieae (Sansevieria), and Dracaeneae (Cordyline and Dracaena) . Thorne, on the other hand, placed these same groupings at the subfamily level. R. M. T. Dahlgren et al. (1985) recognized them as separate families, Nolinaceae (Nolina and Dasylirion), Dracaenaceae (Sansevieria and Dracaena), and Asteliaceae (Cordyline), in addition to the Agavaceae (Yucca, Hesperaloe, Agave, Manfreda, and Furcraea) .

A. Cronquist (1981) based his broadly circumscribed Agavaceae on a common xerophytic habit. However, the karyotype of 5 long and 25 short chromosomes for the Agavoideae and Yuccoideae is distinct from the karyotypes of the other subfamilies that Cronquist included in the Agavaceae. Current research on the phylogenetics of moncotyledons, using DNA sequences of rbcL, support the separation of Dracaena, Nolina, and Dasylirion from Agavaceae (M. R. Duvall et al. 1993b) . We believe that a broad interpretation of the Agavaceae unites groups that should be recognized as separate.

Many genera in Agavaceae are economically important. All genera in the Agavoideae and Yuccoideae contain steroidal sapogenins; some have been used in folk medicine, and locally and commercially as soap (G. Blunden et al. 1978; S. E. Verhoek 1978; M. Wall et al. 1957) . They provide fibers for cordage, baskets, and hats, as well as food and drink for many indigenous peoples of the southwestern United States (H. S. Gentry 1982) . They are also used as commercial fiber and beverage crops in Latin America and the Old World (H. Brucher 1989) . In the southern United States, some species in each genus are cultivated and represented in the flora, and at least one species of Yucca is now grown as far north as Canada. Collectors should record the uses of these plants in their notes along with the critical information on plant habit and morphology. Photographs are often important tools for the identification of these plants, and, with the advent of digital cameras, are now much easier to obtain and process.^[1]

Subfamily Coliadinae:

Sulphurs are members of the Family Pieridae. In North America, sulphurs range from Mexico to northern Canada. Females of most species are distinctly different from males. Some species are mud-puddlers and will collect around muddy pools on dirt roads. Sulphurs overwinter as larvae.

Genus Agave:

Plants short-stemmed pachycauls, perennial, often flowering after 8-20+ years, monocarpic or polycarpic, acaulescent or caulescent, scapose, forming succulent rosettes on thick, fibrous-rooted crowns, often rhizomatous. Stems aboveground, unbranched or, less often, branched. Leaves evergreen in rosette; blade light green to green and occasionally with lighter patterns of white (€œcross-zoned€�) or imprinted with white (€œbud-prints€�), linear-lanceolate to ovate, firm to rigid, often thick and fleshy, margins entire, filiferous, or armed with marginal teeth and short to long, sharp-pointed apical spine. Scapes, with inflorescences, much exceeding foliage. Inflorescences terminal atop a semiwoody stalk, spicate, racemose, or paniculate, open to dense, bracteate, occasionally bulbiferous, with flowers borne singly, in pairs, or in umbellike clusters of 2-40+ on peduncles or the lateral branches borne by the peduncle. Flowers protandrous, erect or recurved, showy; perianth mostly yellow, infrequently whitish or reddish, funnelform to tubular; tepals 6, connate basally into tube atop a typically constricted neck; limb lobes erect or curved, equal to unequal in length and/or width, linear to oblong or deltate, often papillate at recurved or hooded apex; stamens 6, exserted, attached atop or within perianth tube; filaments mostly filiform; anthers versatile, linear; ovary inferior, greenish at anthesis, 3-locular, succulent, thick-walled, ovules numerous; style subulate; stigma 3-lobed, glandular, capitate, papillate. Fruits capsular, oblong to ovoid, mostly thick walled and fleshy, dehiscence loculicidal. Seeds black, flattened, obovoid, becoming globose distally. x = 30 (5 large, 25 small) .

Species ca. 200: warmer regions in the Americas from the sw United States and Florida s to the Caribbean Islands and into Mexico, Central America, and tropical South America; widely cultivated.

Specimens of Agave are planted occasionally for their horticultural value in warmer regions. Native Americans have used most of our native species for food and fiber. Mescal and tequila are distilled liquors derived from the meristem and leaf base of agave. Tequila comes mainly from A. tequilana F. A. C. Weber, whereas A. angustifolia Haworth is the usual source for €œcommerical€� mescal. Some variants of A. angustifolia are also important sources of fiber. Commercially, most agave fiber comes from A. sisalana in what is now a worldwide industry. Agave fourcroydes Lemaire is also used but more locally in Latin America including Mexico. Both species are sterile hybrids of unknown origin.

Native Americans who used agave plants for food and fiber developed numerous cultivars, including many that may be the results of hybridization or mutation events resulting in fully or partially sterile clones. Some have been sufficiently studied cytologically and morphologically so that the origin of the hybrid species can be ascertained. Naturally occurring hybrids also are known, and some sterile recombinants are so distinctive that they have been formally named (e.g., Agave ×ajoensis, A. ×arizonica, A. ×glomeruliflora, and probably A. schottii var. treleasei) . There remain some species that may be of hybrid origin, or at least now are sterile or partially sterile, but little is known about their origin. Essentially, all the species are known today from pre-Columbian agricultural sites, and most appear to have had a Mexican origin (e.g., the many expressions of A. americana subsp. americana, A. decipiens, A. desmettiana, A. neglecta, A. delamateri, A. phillipsiana, A. sisalana, and A. weberi) . Some rare species associated with pre-Columbian sites are fertile (e.g., A. murpheyi) ; whether they were locally selected or brought from elsewhere is unknown. Some hybrid expressions, such as A. gracilipes, seem to be well established. It is a matter of taxonomic judgment whether the species status for A. gracilipes should be altered to hybrid status; we have not proposed that now because the cytological work to confirm the morphological hypothesis of a hybrid origin has not been done.

Indigenous people long have used agaves. Those containing high amounts of sapogenins are bitter and generally not used for food. Agave plants used for food are harvested when they show signs of flowering. Rosettes are collected and the leaves cut away, leaving the heart or head, which is pit-baked for many hours. It has been known for a long time that agaves have been cultivated in the warmer regions of North America, but it was only recently discovered that cultivation occurred north of the Mexican border. Such agaves are typically found near agricultural features and possess morphological characteristics that reflect desirable agronomic attributes. People no doubt traded agave products and live plants, thereby expanding the distribution of many expressions of agave. Agaves whose distributions directly reflect their movement by man include Agave murpheyi, A. delamateri, A. phillipsiana, A. applanata, A. karatto Miller, and A. decipiens. It is also suggested that A. americana subsp. americana var. expansa, A. desmettiana, A. sisalana, A. neglecta, and A. weberi may have been ancient cultivars originating in Latin America or the Caribbean, although at present there is little information to support this hypothesis.

Identification of Agave species is often difficult, especially with nonflowering material. See H. S. Gentry (1982, p. 47) for information on how to prepare specimens properly.^[2]

Habit: Evergreen.

Flowers: Bloom Period: n/a • Flower Color: inconspicuous, none, pale yellow, yellow

Images:

Distribution

Range and Population

Eastern Mexico.

Growth

Culture: Space 4-6' apart.

Soil: Minimum pH: 5.6 • Maximum pH: 6.5

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Full Sun.

Moisture: Drought Tolerance: High

Temperature: Cold Hardiness: 7a, 7b, 8a, 8b, 9a, 9b, 10a, 10b, 11. (map)

Similar Species

Members of the genus Agave:

There are approximately 1,059 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them: A. parryi parryi · A. toumeyana bella · A. ajoensis · A. 'Blue Glow' (Agave) · A. 'Cornelius' (Century Plant) · A. 'Joe Hoak' (Agave) · A. 'Sierra Mixteca FO-076' (Agave) · A. aboriginum · A. abortiva · A. abrupta · A. acicularis · A. acklinicola · A. acuispina · A. affinis · A. africana · A. akites · A. aktites (Agave) · A. albescens · A. albicans · A. albicans var. ctenophora · A. albicans var. medio-picta · A. albomarginata (Agave) · A. albopilosa · A. alibertii · A. aloides · A. aloina · A. altissima · A. amaniensis · A. americana (Agave) · A. americana 'Marginata Aurea Monstrosa' (Dwarf Variegated Century Plant) · A. americana 'Medio-picta Alba' (Century Plant) · A. americana 'Mediopicta Alba' (Agave) · A. americana 'Mediopicta Aurea' · A. americana 'Mediopicta' (Agave) · A. americana 'Striata' · A. americana 'Variegata' (Agave) · A. americana f. picta · A. americana f. virginica · A. americana L. 'Marginata Aurea' · A. americana L. 'Medio picta' · A. americana L. var. americana (American Century Plant) · A. americana L. var. medio-picta Trel. · A. americana L. var. medio-picta Trel. 'Alba' · A. americana L. var. medio-picta Trel. 'Aurea' · A. americana protamericana (American Agave) · A. americana protoamericana · A. americana subsp. protamericana · A. americana var. americana · A. americana var. expansa (Agave) · A. americana var. latifolia · A. americana var. marginata (American Century Plant) · A. americana var. medio-picta · A. americana var. oaxacensis · A. americana var. picta · A. americana var. striata (Agave) · A. americana var. subtilis · A. americana var. theometel · A. americana var. variegata · A. amoena · A. amurensis · A. ananassoides · A. angustiarum · A. angustifolia (Century Plant) · A. angustifolia Haw. var. angustifolia · A. angustifolia subsp. rubescens · A. angustifolia subsp. tequilana · A. angustifolia var. angustifolia · A. angustifolia var. deweyana · A. angustifolia var. letonae · A. angustifolia var. marginata · A. angustifolia var. nivea · A. angustifolia var. pacifica (Agave) · A. angustifolia var. pes-mulae · A. angustifolia var. rubescens · A. angustifolia var. sargentii (Agave) · A. angustifolia var. variegata (Agave) · A. angustifolium · A. angustissima · A. anomala (Agave) · A. antillarum (Agave) · A. antillarum var. grammontensis · A. apedicellata · A. applanata (Agave) · A. applanata var. huachucensis · A. applanata var. parryi · A. arizonica (Agave) · A. arubensis · A. aspera · A. asperrima (Rough Century Plant) · A. asperrima maderensis · A. asperrima potosiensis · A. asperrima subsp. maderensis · A. asperrima subsp. potosiensis · A. asperrima subsp. zarcensis · A. asperrima zarcensis · A. atrovirens (Maguey) · A. atrovirens 'Nana' · A. atrovirens Karw. ex Salm-Dyck var. mirabilis (Trel. ex Standl.) Gentry · A. atrovirens var. cochlearis · A. atrovirens var. latissima

Bibliography

• Berger, A. 1915. Die Agaven. Jena. Breitung, A. J. 1968. The Agaves.... Edited by Charles Glass and Robert A. Foster. Reseda.
• Gentry, H. S. 1972. The Agave Family in Sonora. Washington. [Agric. Handb. 399].
• Gentry, H. S. 1978. The agaves of Baja California. Occas. Pap. Calif. Acad. Sci. 130.
• Gentry, H. S. 1982. Agaves of Continental North America. Tucson.
• Hodgson, W. C. 1999. Vascular plants of Arizona: Agavaceae. J. Arizona-Nevada Acad. Sci. 32: 121.
• Hodgson, W. C. 2001. Food Plants of the Sonoran Desert. Tucson.

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Notes

Contributors:

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-2006. Systema Naturae 2000. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Accessed October 4, 2006.

Identifiers:

• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 715833

Footnotes:

1. Susan Verhoek & William J. Hess "Agavaceae". in Flora of North America Vol. 26 Page 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 51, 303, 413, 414. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org.
2. James L. Reveal & Wendy C. Hodgson "Agave". in Flora of North America Vol. 26 Page 413, 414, 442, 443, 444, 450, 463. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org.