← Bedfellow

Century Plant

Agave americana

A massive blue-gray rosette of fierce, spine-tipped leaves that, after decades, throws up a twenty-foot flowering mast and dies, leaving offsets. Bold, dramatic, and bat- and bird-pollinated. Like other agaves, the sweet heart is traditionally baked into a staple food, the flower stalk roasted like asparagus, and the sap tapped for syrup or fermented into pulque and mescal.

Family

Asparagaceae

Type

shrub

Lifespan

perennial

Height

3–6 ft

Spacing

6–10 ft apart

Light

sun

Soil moisture

dry, moist

Soil pH

acidic, neutral, alkaline

Bloom

June, July

Bloom colors

yellow

Wildlife value

pollinators, hummingbirds, mammals

Landscape uses

hedge or screen, foundation

Native states

AZ, TX