Agave

Plant Characteristics
Lifespan:	⌛	perennial
Origin:	✈	?
Poisonous:	☠	some have juice causing acute rash

Cultivation

Exposure:	☼	full sun"full sun" is not in the list (sun, part-sun, shade, unknown) of allowed values for the "Exposure" property., [[Exposure::part-shade^sn]]
Water:	◍	[[Water::usually moderate to little^sn]]
Sunset Zones:		vary by species

Scientific Names
Agavaceae >	Agave >

Read about Agave in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture
the large flower spike of Agave chiapensis AGAVE (Greek, agauos, admirable). Amaryttidacese. Important decorative and economic plants from hot American deserts, the most familiar of which is A. americana, the Century Plant, or American Aloe. Stem short or wanting: Ivs. mostly in a close rosette, usually stiff and more or less fleshy, persisting from year to year, the margins mostly armed with teeth and the apex tipped with a usually pungent spine: us. in spikes (Littsea) or panicles (Euagave); perianth 6-parted, more or less funnel-ehaped; stamens 6. mostly long- exserted; style 1; stigma capitately 3-lobed; ovary inferior, 3-celled; seeds numerous, flat, thin, black.—Some species flower but once and die, others occasionally, while others flower from year to year. The number of species is fully 300, and more than 325 have been described, largely from the Mexican tableland, although each island of the W. Indies possesses its peculiar species. One of the largest collections is at Kew, where there are 85 named species. The largest collections in the U. S. are at the Botanical Garden of Washington and the Missouri Botanical Garden, where there are about 75 species each. Amateurs often cult, a greater number of species than are described in this account. Agaves are essentially fanciers' or amateurs' plants. This noble group of plants has never received the attention it deserves, and yet no genus of plants in America furnishes so many suitable decorative plants. Sir Joseph Hooker places it next to the palm and aloe, but the former is a great family of 1,100 species. While in the United States one thinks of the agaves only as decorative plants, yet in Mexico, then- native home, they are the most useful of plants. Many species furnish fiber, others soap, while still others produce the two great Mexican drinks, pulque and mescal. Pulque, which is a fermented drink, is derived from several species, especially A. atrovi- rcns. Mescal, which is a distilled drink, is usually not obtained from the same species as pulque, although there is a general belief to the contrary. The species from which is made most of the mescal used in Mexico is unknown.—The species vary so much in size and form that they can be used in a great many ways. Some of the smaller species are suitable for the house, and even some of the larger species are so used. The larger species are well adapted for vases in large gardens and grounds, along walks, terraces, and the like. These plants, coming, as they do, from arid or even desert regions, where they have a hard struggle to exist, can be grown with little or no care, but they respond very quickly to good treatment. —The species are propagated in various ways; some produce suckers at the base, or even underground shoots; others give off buds from the stem, which fall off and take root, or may be detached and planted; while not a few produce bulblets in the flower-clusters, and sometimes in great abundance. Nearly all may be produced from seed, but as most of the species flower only after a long interval, and many have not yet been known to flower in cultivation, this latter means of propagation cannot be relied upon. In cultivation, fruit is set very sparingly or not at all without artificial pollination, although this can be accomplished with very little trouble. The agaves are not at all difficult to grow. The soil should be principally loam and sand, and if any vegetable soil be given it should be in small quantities. Good drainage and firm potting are necessary. To grow small plante of the large-leaved kinds into good-sized specimens quickly, they should be plunged out in a sunny spot m spring, taking care that the pots are large enough so that they will not require repotting in the fall. Nearly all of the large-growing kinds are easily increased from suckers, which, when the plants are grown in a pot-bound condition, are produced very readily. They should be taken off from the parent plant only when furnished with sufficient roots to give thorn a start. Some kinds are raised only from seeds, which, when freshly gathered, germinate in a few weeks. ^CH The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.