Plantae > Tracheophyta > Liliopsida > Asparagales > Asparagaceae > Agave > Agave americana

Agave americana (American century plant)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Agave americana, common names sentry plant, century plant, maguey, or American aloe, is a species of flowering plant in the family Agavaceae, native to Mexico, and the United States in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas. Today, it is cultivated worldwide as an ornamental plant. It has become naturalized in many regions, including the West Indies, parts of South America, the southern Mediterranean Basin, and parts of Africa, India, China, Thailand, and Australia. Despite the common name "American aloe", it is not closely related to plants in the genus Aloe.
View Wikipedia Record: Agave americana

Infraspecies

Agave americana americana (Attributes)
Agave americana protamericana (American century plant) (Attributes)
Agave americana var. expansa (American century plant)
Agave americana var. franzosini
Agave americana var. oaxacensis
Agave americana variegata

Invasive Species

View ISSG Record: Agave americana

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  Medium-Low
Screening - Summer [2]  Dense
Screening - Winter [2]  Dense
Bloom Period [2]  Indeterminate
Drought Tolerance [2]  High
Edible [3]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Fire Tolerance [2]  Low
Flower Type [3]  Hermaphrodite
Frost Free Days [2]  10 months
Fruit/Seed Abundance [2]  Low
Growth Form [2]  Single Crown
Growth Period [2]  Spring, Summer, Fall
Growth Rate [2]  Slow
Hazards [3]  Contact with the fresh sap can cause dermatitis in sensitive people; The plants have a very sharp and tough spine at the tip of each leaf. They need to be carefully sited in the garden.
Leaf Type [3]  Evergreen
Lifespan [3]  Perennial
Pollinators [3]  Lepidoptera, Bats
Propagation [2]  Bare Root, Container, Seed, Sprig
Regrowth Rate [2]  Slow
Root Depth [2]  30 inches (76 cm)
Seed Spread Rate [2]  Slow
Seed Vigor [2]  Low
Seeds Per [2]  15000 / lb (33069 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [2]  Semi-Erect
Structure [4]  Shrub
Usage [3]  The plant contains saponins. An extract of the leaves is used as a soap; The roots are used according to another report; It is likely that the root is the best source of the saponins that are used to make a soap; Chop up the leaves or the roots into small pieces and then simmer them in water to extract the saponins. Do not over boil or you will start to break down the saponins; There is a report that the plant has insecticidal properties, but further details are not given; A very strong fibre obtained from the leaves is used for making rope, coarse fabrics etc; A paper can also be made from the leaves; The thorns on the leaves are used as pins and needles; The dried flowering stems are used as a waterproof thatch; The plants are used in land-reclamation schemes in arid areas of the world;
Vegetative Spread Rate [2]  None
Flower Color [2]  Yellow
Foliage Color [2]  Green
Fruit Color [2]  Brown
Fall Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Height [3]  25 feet (7.5 m)
Width [3]  8.2 feet (2.5 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [2]  USDA Zone: 8 Low Temperature: 10 F° (-12.2 C°) → 20 F° (-6.7 C°)
Light Preference [2]  Full Sun
Soil Acidity [2]  Neutral
Soil Fertility [2]  Infertile
Water Use [2]  Low
View Plants For A Future Record : Agave americana

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Canaveral National Seashore II 9090 Florida, United States
Everglades and Dry Tortugas Biosphere Reserve   Florida, United States  
Isles of Scilly Complex 66350 England, United Kingdom    
Parco Del Somma-Vesuvio e Miglio D'Oro National Park II 33648 Italy
PUNTA ENTINAS-SABINAR 4806 Spain  

Predators

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 3Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 4Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 5Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 6Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 7Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 8del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0