Agave americana

Agave americana, better known as the Mexican Agave or the American Agave, is an impressive perennial, highly appreciated in landscape art for its monumental and remarkably architectural silhouette. Perfectly adapted to dry and hot climates and poor soils, it forms powerful rosettes composed of large, rigid, succulent, and pointed leaves, of a grey-blue colour. It is equipped with sharp tips to be wary of. The flowering is a beautiful surprise, emerging from the heart of the oldest rosettes, in the form of immense majestic flower stalks bearing panicles of yellow-green flowers. Not very hardy but spectacular, it naturally structures exotic and wild settings. It can be grown in the ground in mild climates, but also in large pots to be stored during winter in all regions.

Originally from Mexico and the extreme southwest of the United States, American Agave is above all a botanical species adapted to semi-desert climates, now naturalised almost everywhere in the world, including Pakistan and China. It belongs to the Asparagaceae family (formerly Agavaceae), just like yuccas or tuberose. This perennial succulent herbaceous plant has rhizomes capable of producing suckers, but it is almost devoid of aerial stems. It is composed of about 30 leaves forming a basal rosette, tall and wide up to 1.5m (5ft). The immense and pointed leaves can reach 2m (7ft) in length and 20cm (8in) in width. They are smooth, rigid, and very thick, grey-greenish-blue in colour when ripe, and bordered with grey to brown spines at the terminal part. The tip of each leaf is arranged diagonally downwards, and measures 2 to 6cm (1 to 2in) in length. Each leaf tip is equipped with a sharp spine. When a rosette reaches the venerable age of 15 to 20 years, or even more, it produces an immense flower stalk, reaching a height of 5 to 10m (16 to 33ft). It bears numerous horizontal branches. The branches carry flattened and spherical panicles, 7 to 10cm (3 to 4in) wide, composed of a myriad of small yellow-green flowers. The rosette, classified as semelparous, dies after flowering, which lasts several months, having taken care to produce numerous small peripheral rosettes to ensure its perpetuity.

In mild climates, it will find its place in a large rock garden or at the edges of a dry garden, where its monumental silhouette will stand out against a blue sky. It can be planted with the Barbary fig, giant fennel, fairly hardy candle cacti (Cleistocactus strausii, Cylindropuntia imbricata), and equally undemanding viper's bugloss from the Canary Islands. Gardeners in colder regions should plant it in a very large pot on a terrace, carefully choosing the sunniest and most sheltered spot, to recreate a setting inspired by gardens and patios that flourish at the end of the world. This hardy plant, down to about -8°C (17.6°F) in perfectly drained soil, can become invasive where it thrives.

Agave is an edible plant, used in Mexico to make mescal, an alcoholic beverage obtained by fermenting its sugar-rich juice. It is also used in traditional medicine in Mexico, Brazil, and India for its supposed anti-fungal properties. The inflorescences are highly attractive to many pollinating insects.