Agave palmeri (also known as Palmer's century plant) is an especially large member of the genus Agave, in the family Asparagaceae.
Description Agave palmeri is the largest Agave species growing in the United States. It produces a basal leaf rosette of fleshy, upright green leaves of up to in length, with jagged edges and ending in sharp, thick spines of long. The buds are purplish. Blooming from June to August, the flowers are pale yellow and green; they are long with six segments and stamens, growing on branches from the upper third of the flower spike, which can be up to tall.Gentry, Howard Scott. Agaves of Continental North America. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1992.Flora of North America, Agave palmeri, v 26 p 460.Shreve, F. & I. L. Wiggins. 1964. Vegetation and Flora of the Sonoran Desert 2 vols. Stanford University Press, Stanford.
Distribution and habitat The plant is native to southern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, Sonora and Chihuahua.Engelmann, Georg. Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis 3: 319–320. 1875.Conabio (2009). Catálogo taxonómico de especies de México. 1. In Capital Nat. México. Conabio, Mexico D.F. It can be found in dry, rocky areas.
Cultivation The plant is frequently cultivated as an ornamental in other regions.Bailey, L.H. & E.Z. Bailey. 1976. Hortus Third i–xiv, 1–1290. MacMillan, New York. It requires a large pot but is very tolerant of a wide range of conditions, including temperatures of around −10 °C.Complete Encyclopedia of Succulents by Zdenek Jezek and Libor Kunte
Uses The plant was used by Native Americans for food, drink, fiber, soap, medicine and to make lances.
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