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Agave (; ; )An Anglo-Hispanic pronunciation. Sunset Western Garden Book, 1995:606–607. is a genus of native to the arid regions of the Americas. The genus is primarily known for its succulent and xerophytic species that typically form large rosettes of strong, fleshy leaves.
Many plants in this genus may be considered perennial, because they require several to many years to mature and flower. However, most Agave species are more accurately described as monocarpic rosettes or multiannuals, since each individual rosette semelparity and then dies; a small number of Agave species are polycarpic.
Along with plants from the closely related genera Yucca, Hesperoyucca, and Hesperaloe, various Agave species are popular in hot, dry climates, as they require very little supplemental water to survive. Most Agave species grow very slowly. Some Agave species are known by the common name "century plant".
Maguey is a Spanish word that refers to all of the large-leafed plants in the Asparagaceae family, including agaves and yuccas. are eaten in many indigenous culinary traditions of Mesoamerica.
Agave rosettes are mostly monocarpic, though some species are polycarpic. During flowering, a tall stem or "mast" (" quiote" in Mexico), which can grow to be high, grows apically from the center of the rosette and bears a large number of short, tubular flowers and sometimes vegetatively produced (a form of asexual reproduction). After pollination/fertilization and subsequent fruit development, in monocarpic species, the original rosette dies. However, throughout the lifetime of many Agave species, rhizomatous Basal shoot develop above the roots at the base of the rosette. These suckers go on to form new plants after the original rosette and dies. Not all agaves produce suckers throughout their lifetimes; some species rarely or never produce suckers, while others may only develop suckers after final maturation with inflorescence. Some varieties can live for 60 years before flowering.
Agaves can be confused with cacti, , or , but although these plants all share similar morphological adaptations to arid environments (e.g. Succulent plant), each group belongs to a different plant family and probably experienced convergent evolution. Further, cactus (Cactaceae) and stonecrop (Crassulaceae) lineages are eudicots, while aloes (Asphodelaceae) and agaves (Asparagaceae) are monocots.
The genus Agave was erected by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, initially with four species. The first listed was Agave americana, now the type species. In the Cronquist system and others, Agave was placed in the family Liliaceae, but phylogenetic analyses of DNA sequencing later showed it did not belong there. In the APG II system, Agave was placed in the segregated family Agavaceae. When this system was superseded by the APG III system in 2009, the Agavaceae were subsumed into the expanded family Asparagaceae, and Agave was treated as one of 18 genera in the subfamily Agavoideae, a position retained in the APG IV system of 2016.
Agaves and close relatives have long presented significant taxonomic difficulty. These difficulties could be due to the relatively young evolutionary age of the group (major diversification events of the group most likely occurred 8–10 million years ago), ease of hybridization between species (and even genera), incomplete lineage sorting, and long generation times. Within a species, morphological variations can be considerable, especially in cultivation; a number of named species may be variants of original wild-type species that horticulturalists bred to appear unique in cultivation.
A. americana, century plant, was introduced into southern Europe about the middle of the 16th century and is now naturalized as well as widely cultivated as an ornamental, as it is in the Americas. In the variegated forms, the leaf has a white or yellow marginal or central stripe. As the leaves unfold from the center of the rosette, the impression of the marginal spines is conspicuous on the still erect younger leaves. The plant is reported being hardy to −9.5 to −6.5 °C or Zone 8b 15-20f. Being succulents, they tend to rot if kept too wet. In areas such as America's Pacific Northwest, they might be hardy for cold winter temperatures, but need protection from winter rain. They mature very slowly and die after flowering but are easily propagated by the offsets from the base of the stem.
A. americana (a blue variety) occurs in abundance in the Karoo, and arid highland regions of South Africa. Introduced by the British settlers in 1820, the plant was originally cultivated and used as emergency feed for livestock. Today, it is used mainly for the production of syrup and sugar.
But the miracle of nature was the great Mexican aloe, or maguey, whose clustering pyramids of flowers, towering above their dark coronals of leaves, were seen sprinkled over many a broad acre of the table-land. As we have already noticed its bruised leaves afforded a paste from which paper was manufactured, its juice was fermented into an intoxicating beverage, pulque, of which the natives, to this day, are extremely fond; its leaves further supplied an impenetrable thatch for the more humble dwellings; thread, of which coarse stuffs were made, and strong cords, were drawn from its tough and twisted fibers; pins and needles were made from the thorns at the extremity of its leaves; and the root, when properly cooked, was converted into a palatable and nutritious food. The agave, in short, was meat, drink, clothing, and writing materials for the Aztec! Surely, never did Nature enclose in so compact a form so many of the elements of human comfort and civilization!
The four major edible parts of the agave are the flowers, the leaves, the stalks or basal rosettes, and the sap (in Spanish: aguamiel, meaning "honey water"). The sap of some species can also be used as soap.
The agave, especially A. murpheyi, was a major food source for the prehistoric indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. The Hohokam of southern Arizona cultivated large areas of agave. In southern California and the Baja California Peninsula, the roasted hearts of Agave shawii and Agave deserti were historically among the most important foods for the Cahuilla, Kumeyaay, Kiliwa people, and Paipai people peoples, leaving ubiquitous archeological evidence in the form of agave-roasting pits throughout the region.
The Navajo people similarly found many uses for the agave plant. A beverage is squeezed from the baked fibers, and the heads can be baked or boiled, pounded into flat sheets, sun dried, and stored for future use. The baked, dried heads are also boiled and made into an edible paste, eaten whole, or made into soup. The leaves are eaten boiled, and the young, tender flowering stalks and shoots are roasted and eaten as well. The fibers are used to make rope, the leaves are used to line baking pits, and the sharp-pointed leaf tips are used to make basketry awls.
During the development of the inflorescence, sap rushes to the base of the young flower stalk. Agave syrup (commonly called agave nectar), a sweetener derived from the sap, is used as an alternative to sugar in cooking, and can be added to as a binding agent. from agave leaves are under preliminary research for their potential use as .
==Gallery of species and cultivars==
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