Agave shawii
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| Agave shawii | ||||||||||||||
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| Agave shawii Engelm. |
Agave shawii is an agave found only along the Pacific coast of Baja California, extending north into the coastal chaparral of southernmost California.
It is a small-to-medium agave, with green ovate leaves 20-50 cm long and 8-20 cm wide, and a variable pattern of marginal teeth. The inflorescence forms a panicle 2-4 meters in height, whose 8-14 lateral umbels are subtended by large purple bracts. Each umbel consists of a mass of yellowish or reddish flowers.
It generally flowers February to May, and as typical for agaves, the rosette dies thereafter. Although capable of reproducing by suckering, populations vary considerably in their behavior, with some consisting entirely of individual rosettes, while others form groups or colonies of clones.
Subspecies goldmaniana is generally larger, with longer (40-70 cm) lanceolate leaves, and 18-25 umbels on a 3-5 meter stem, and predominates in the desert of the central peninsula.
Although occasionally cultivated, this agave is frost tender, with damage starting at -5 degrees C and becoming extensive at -8 degrees.
[edit] References
- Raymond M. Turner, Janice E. Bowers, and Tony L. Burgess, Sonoran Desert Plants: an Ecological Atlas (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1995) pp. 63-65
