Agave macroacantha, the black-spined agave or large-thorned agave, is a species of succulent
flowering plant in the family
Asparagaceae naturally occurring in
Oaxaca and also near the town of
Tehuacan in the State of
Puebla, Mexico.[4]
Description
Agave macroacantha produces a medium-sized leaf
rosette that can be basal or can grow on a very short stem. Leaves are
succulent, greyish green and up to 1.8 feet long at a maximum, ending in sharp black spines that are up to 1.2 inches long at the tips. Flowers are small, grey and red, growing in bunches on sturdy stems of up to 3 m (10 feet) in height.[5]
Cultivation
The plant prefers a dry, sunny and hot location for summer and from early autumn onwards a cooler, well-lit space. It likes regular watering in summer and only minimum watering in winter, and will fare well in a large pot with sparse, gravelly soil.[6][2][7]
^Zuccarini, Joseph Gerhard. Nova Acta Physico-medica Academiae Caesareae Leopoldino-Carolinae Naturae Curiosorum Exhibentia Ephemerides sive Observationes Historias et Experimenta 16(2): 676. 1833.
^Gentry, Howard Scott. Agaves of Continental North America. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1992.