AGAVE macroacantha

Superb exponent of the Agave genus, slow growing, bushy habit, it’s native to Mexico: when fully developed it can grow 50cm large and a slightly shorter. Leaves, thick and fleshy, narrow and sharp, are numerous and arranged to form a thick rosette; they have, well highlighted with their beautiful glaucous color, both on the edges and at the apex, several showy blackish spines, hence the term species of this agave. The unpredictable flowering is truly majestic and spectacular and probably the name of the genus "Agave" comes from this characteristic, it derives precisely from a Greek term that means "noble or famous": a stem of several meters suddenly sprouts and grows visibly from the heart of the leaves, it has numerous yellow-greenish flowers at the top, followed, after pollination, by fruits full of scaly black seeds or sometimes small seedlings which, detached by the wind, on the ground are able to root and create large new ones colonies of this agave.

Place it in a sunny position and offer it a dry, poor, arid, even stony, but above all well drained soil. Resistant to saltiness of coastal areas as well as to periods of prolonged drought, it however requires a sheltered location or possible shelter in areas characterized by intense and lasting winter cold. In spring it is advisable to remove old or dry or damaged basal leaves and, if too many, also the various suckers that surround the base. Thanks to its modest size, it is suitable to be cultivated in medium-sized pots, better if not too deep, on terraces, balconies or verandas. In the open ground it certainly 'dialogues' with other cacti and succulent plants, as well as with ground cover essences or small bushes of Mediterranean extraction in a creative way.