''Agave americana'',

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contra ...

s century plant, maguey, or American aloe, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. They include all forbs (flowering plants without a woody stem), grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of ...

in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Asparagaceae Asparagaceae, known as the asparagus family, is a family of flowering plants, placed in the order Asparagales of the monocots. The family name is based on the edible garden asparagus, '' Asparagus officinalis''. Those who live in the temperate ...

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and enterta ...

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. It is cultivated worldwide as an

ornamental plant Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that ...

, and has been

naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the i ...

in many regions, including parts of the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Great ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the souther ...

Mediterranean Basin In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin (; also known as the Mediterranean Region or sometimes Mediterranea) is the region of lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have mostly a Mediterranean climate, with mild to cool, rainy winters and w ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Mo ...

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

, China,

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

, and Australia. Despite the common name "American aloe", it is not in the same family as aloe, though it is in the same order,

Asparagales Asparagales (asparagoid lilies) is an order of plants in modern classification systems such as the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) and the Angiosperm Phylogeny Web. The order takes its name from the type family Asparagaceae and is placed in t ...

Description

Variegated Century Plant -- Agave americana 'Marginata'

Although it is called the century plant, it typically lives only 10 to 30 years. It has a spread around with gray-green leaves of long, each with a prickly margin and a heavy spike at the tip that can pierce deeply. Near the end of its life, the plant sends up a tall, branched stalk, laden with yellow blossoms, that may reach a total height up to . Its common name derives from its

semelparous Semelparity and iteroparity are two contrasting reproductive strategies available to living organisms. A species is considered semelparous if it is characterized by a single reproductive episode before death, and iteroparous if it is characteri ...

nature of flowering only once at the end of its long life. The plant dies after flowering, but produces adventitious shoots from the base, which continue its growth.

Taxonomy and naming

''A. americana'' was one of the many species described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...

in the 1753 edition of ''

Species Plantarum ' (Latin for "The Species of Plants") is a book by Carl Linnaeus, originally published in 1753, which lists every species of plant known at the time, classified into genera. It is the first work to consistently apply binomial names and was the ...

'', with the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

that is still used today.

Cultivation

''A. americana'' is cultivated as an

for the large dramatic form of mature plants—for modernist, drought-tolerant, and desert-style cactus gardens—among many planted settings. It is often used in hot climates and where drought conditions occur. The plants can be evocative of 18th-19th-century Spanish colonial and Mexican provincial areas in the

Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, N ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

, and xeric Mexico. It is also a popular landscape plant in dry beach gardens in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

and coastal areas of the

Southeastern United States The Southeastern United States, also referred to as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical region of the United States. It is located broadly on the eastern portion of the southern United States and the southern po ...

. When grown as a house plant, ''A. americana'' is tolerant of light levels ranging from direct sunlight to shade and requires little watering. It does require a winter resting period at temperatures around . It should be grown in a very porous, sandy potting soil, allowed to dry out between waterings, and repotted every spring.

Subspecies and varieties

Two subspecies and two varieties of ''A. americana'' are recognized by the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families:Search for "Agave americana", * ''A. americana'' subsp. ''americana'' *''A. americana'' subsp. ''protamericana'' Gentry *''A. americana'' var. ''expansa'' (Jacobi) Gentry *''A. americana'' var. ''oaxacensis'' Gentry *''A. americana'' var. ''marginata'' Trel. in L.H.Bailey, Stand. Cycl. Hort. 1: 235 (1914). *''A. americana'' var. ''picta'' (Salm-Dyck) A.Terracc., Prim. Contr. Monogr. Agave (1885).

Cultivars A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture ...

include: *'Marginata' with yellow stripes along the margins of each leaf *'Mediopicta' with a broad cream central stripe *'Mediopicta Alba' with a central white band *'Mediopicta Aurea' with a central yellow band *'Striata' with multiple yellow to white stripes along the leaves *'Variegata' with white edges on the leaves. (those marked , as well as the parent species, have gained the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (No ...

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established annual award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. History The Award of Garden Merit ...

Uses

Cuisine

If the

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism ...

stem is cut before flowering, a sweet liquid called ''

aguamiel Aguamiel (literally ''agua'' "water" ''miel'' "honey") is the sap of the Mexican maguey plant which is believed to have therapeutic qualities. According to Native American histories, the process of obtaining aguamiel from maguey was first disco ...

'' ("honey water") gathers in the hollowed heart of the plant. This can be

fermented Fermentation is a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substrates through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen. In food p ...

to produce the alcoholic

drink A drink or beverage is a liquid intended for human consumption. In addition to their basic function of satisfying thirst, drinks play important roles in human culture. Common types of drinks include plain drinking water, milk, juice, smoothies ...

called ''

pulque Pulque (; nci, metoctli), or octli, is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented sap of the maguey (agave) plant. It is traditional in central Mexico, where it has been produced for millennia. It has the color of milk, a rather viscous ...

'' or ''octli'' in

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...

Mexico. In the tequila-producing regions of Mexico, agaves are called ''mezcales''. The high-alcohol product of fermented agave distillation is called ''

mezcal Mezcal (, ), sometimes spelled mescal, is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from any type of agave. The word ''mezcal'' comes from Nahuatl , which means "oven-cooked agave", from and .What is MezcalElmezcal.org Traditionally the word ...

''; ''A. americana'' is one of several agaves used for distillation. A mezcal called ''

tequila Tequila (; ) is a distilled beverage made from the blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila northwest of Guadalajara, and in the Jaliscan Highlands (''Los Altos de Jalisco'') of the central western Mexican state ...

'' is produced from '' Agave tequilana'', commonly called "blue agave". The many different types of mezcal include some which may be flavored with the very pungent mezcal worm. ''Mezcal'' and ''tequila'', although also produced from agave plants, are different from ''pulque'' in their technique for extracting the sugars from the heart of the plant, and in that they are

distilled spirits Liquor (or a spirit) is an alcoholic drink produced by distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar, that have already gone through alcoholic fermentation. Other terms for liquor include: spirit drink, distilled beverage or hard ...

. In ''mezcal'' and ''tequila'' production, the sugars are extracted from the ''piñas'' (or hearts) by heating them in ovens, rather than by collecting ''aguamiel'' from the plant's cut stalk. Thus, if one were to distill ''pulque'', it would not be a form of ''mezcal'', but rather a different drink. Agaves are also found throughout Latin America, and are used similarly. In Ecuador, the analog of ''pulque'' is ''guarango'', and more recently this has been distilled as miske. Agave nectar is marketed as a natural form of sugar with a low

glycemic index The glycemic (glycaemic) index (GI; ) is a number from 0 to 100 assigned to a food, with pure glucose arbitrarily given the value of 100, which represents the relative rise in the blood glucose level two hours after consuming that food. The GI of ...

that is due to its high

fructose Fructose, or fruit sugar, is a ketonic simple sugar found in many plants, where it is often bonded to glucose to form the disaccharide sucrose. It is one of the three dietary monosaccharides, along with glucose and galactose, that are absorb ...

content.

Fibers

The leaves yield

fibers Fiber or fibre (from la, fibra, links=no) is a natural or artificial substance that is significantly longer than it is wide. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. The strongest engineering materials often incorporate ...

, known as ''pita'', which are suitable for making

rope A rope is a group of yarns, plies, fibres, or strands that are twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have tensile strength and so can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger than similarly ...

, nets, bags, sacks, matting, or coarse cloth. They are also used for

embroidery Embroidery is the craft of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to apply thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. In modern days, embroidery is usually seen ...

of leather in a technique known as '' piteado''. Both pulque and maguey fiber were important to the economy of

Mexico.

Medicine

''Agave americana'' contains agavose, a sugar with the same chemical formula of

sucrose Sucrose, a disaccharide, is a sugar composed of glucose and fructose subunits. It is produced naturally in plants and is the main constituent of white sugar. It has the molecular formula . For human consumption, sucrose is extracted and refi ...

(C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁), but with only 0.32 of its sweetening power, as well as agavasaponins and agavosides. It is used in

traditional medicine Traditional medicine (also known as indigenous medicine or folk medicine) comprises medical aspects of traditional knowledge that developed over generations within the folk beliefs of various societies, including indigenous peoples, before th ...

to treat several ailments, and as a laxative, diuretic and diaphoretic, although a systematic review did not find enough data to support its effectiveness or safety. ''A. americana'' is known to be able to cause severe allergic dermatitis.

Heraldry

The plant figures in the

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in it ...

of Don Diego de Mendoza, a Native American governor of the village of Ajacuba, Hidalgo.pacbell.net/nelsnfam/mexico

Art

The

Aztecs The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl l ...

pulped the leaves of ''A. americana'' to create paper—the Humboldt fragments were made in this way.

References

External links

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Native Plant Information Network (NPIN) — ''Agave americana'' ''Agave americana'' — UC Photos gallery
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Agave Americana americana Flora of Northeastern Mexico Flora of Northwestern Mexico Flora of Central Mexico Flora of the Chihuahuan Desert Flora of Arizona Flora of Texas Flora of Sonora Flora of Coahuila Flora of Tamaulipas Flora of Nuevo León Flora of San Luis Potosí Flora of Oaxaca Flora of Jalisco Flora of Querétaro Flora of Veracruz Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Crops originating from Mexico Fiber plants Plants used in traditional Native American medicine Garden plants of North America Drought-tolerant plants