Agave

Agave, Agave spp.

Agaves, or century plants, are rosette, perennial succulents. The leaves are spirally arranged to allow rain water to be collected and drained inward around the base of the stem. While it takes many years for agave to flower, it does not take a century, but rather somewhere between ten to thirty years.

Many offshoots to an extremely well-growing agave.

Most agave are generally clonal with vegetative offshoots to replace the parent plant after it dies.  Agaves are drought and heat tolerant. They can be found throughout the south as natives and introduced species. Although most species are pollinated by nectar-feeding bats,  some species rely on other pollinators such as hummingbirds and insects.

Removal of the emerging leaf bud allows sap to pool for a beverage

For at least 9,000 years, agaves have been a source of food and beverage for humans. In addition, they provided as a source of soap, fiber, medicine, and lances to many native tribes, and still do. Commercially valuable wax is a residue of fiber production, and sisal and henequen provide close to 80% of the world's hard fibers. The heart was baked for days to produce a fibrous meat which was then sometimes dried for use in cakes. One species has a taste comparative to sweet potato, molasses, and pineapple, and baked agave heart can sometimes still be found in Mexican markets. The young flower stalks were also consumed, but the most notable use is of the sap to produce mescal, pulque, and tequila.