AGAVE parrasana

Beautiful species of the genus Agave, slow growing, limited development, it’s native to Mexico. Leaves, short and wide, fleshy and rigid, are numerous and their color fades from green to grey-blue; they have multiple silver thorns along the margins and a darker sting more pronounced at the apex and, being arranged in a circular way to form compact and impenetrable rosettes, they have earned this plant the popular English name of "Cabbage head 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.

Place it in full sun and in a poor, 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 may be useful to free the plant from old, dry or damaged basal leaves and on the occasion also remove, if present, the young agaves sprouted around the base. Its small size even in its mature stage make it suitable to vases and containers on balconies and terraces; in the open ground it will live very well in association with other cacti and succulent plants, that perhaps enhance its precious morphological peculiarities.