Agave is a genus of plants of the family Amaryllidaceae which includes the daffodil and narcissus. They are popularly known as American aloes and formerly called the century plant from the mistaken belief that it lives a hundred years before flowering, then flowers and dies. They are generally large, and have a massive tuft of fleshy leaves with a spiny apex. They live for many years - ten to seventy according to treatment - before flowering. When this takes place the tall flowering stem springs from the centre of the tuft of leaves, and grows very rapidly until it reaches a height of 15, 20, or even 40 feet, bearing towards the end a large number of flowers; then the plant apparently dies down to the ground but a lateral bud springs from the underground part of the stem and a new plant is formed. The best-known species is Agave americdna (common American aloe), introduced into Europe 1561, and now extensively grown in the warmer parts of this continent as well as in Asia (India in particular). This and other species yield various important products. The Mexicans grew the plant to form dense hedges, and removed the buds for the sugary sap which exudes from the wounds thus made. The sap was collected and fermented and distilled to form pulque, a drink resembling cider. The leaves are used for feeding cattle; the fibres of the leaves (called pita, sisal hemp, or henequen} are formed into thread, cord, and ropes; an extract from the leaves is used as a substitute for soap; slices of the withered flower-stem are used as razor-strops. Research Agave
Abbreviations
Nature
Research Agave