Introduction

Agaves have sustained Indigenous peoples of the Americas for thousands of years, supplying food, medicine, fiber, and fermented drinks. Today, they’re prized worldwide as striking, drought-tolerant ornamentals for gardens and containers. With water-storing leaves and CAM photosynthesis, agaves keep going through heat and harsh light where other plants fail. Their bold rosettes and dramatic, once-in-a-lifetime flower stalks make them emblems of arid and semiarid landscapes. Because they can flourish on marginal soils with little irrigation, they’re also floated as candidates for biofuel feedstocks.

The Details

Botanists currently recognize roughly 200 species, along with numerous natural hybrids, with the center of diversity in central Mexico. Agaves grow from sea level to high plateaus above 6,000 feet and tolerate heat, drought, wind, and poor soils; many see few pests or diseases in native settings. Some hardy species withstand prolonged cold, even around −10 to −20 °F. Rosettes range from about five inches across to well over ten feet. The genus spans northern South America to the southwestern United States—south Texas north into Utah and west into California—anchoring deserts and other semiarid plant communities. Agaves also anchor food webs: bats, birds, and insects take nectar and pollen; small mammals and birds eat the seeds; reptiles and seedlings find shade and cover among the armored leaves. Most species flower once, set seed, and die, often leaving offsets to carry the clonal line. In the landscape, give them sun, room, and well-drained soil, and keep the spiny ones away from paths and doorways.