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Plant Fact Sheet AGAVACEAE Agave deserti is the only agave species to be found on the rocky slopes and flats bordering the Coachella Valley. It occurs over a wide range of elevations from 500 to over 4,000’. The local subspecies, Agave deserti ssp. deserti, is native to southeastern California and northern Baja California. It is an open rosette of gray succulent leaves that forms a mound 2’ X 2’. Over its range, Agave deserti exhibits considerable variation in leaf size and in the armature of teeth along the leaf edge.
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Desert
Agave
Agaves,
in general, are called century plants in reference to the amount of time
it takes them to bloom. This can be anywhere from 5 to 50 years depending
on the growing conditions and the species involved. They send up towering
flower stalks that can approach 40’ in height in the larger species
such as Agave franzosinii. The panicles or stalks of desert agave
can be anywhere from 8’ to 20’ tall. Sending up this tremendous
display to attract a variety of pollinators including bats, hummingbirds,
bees, moths and other insects and nectar-eating birds, requires a lot
of energy. In fact it takes all of the plants reserves to muster up this
‘one night on the town’ in an effort to reproduce sexually.
Most agaves are monocarpic, meaning they bloom once and then die. Many
agaves, especially those in drier areas, do not place the fate and future
of their species on one roll of the dice. They are able to sustain themselves
vegetatively by forming clonal colonies of offsets or ‘pups’.
This greatly increases the odds of passing on their genes because each
offset will get a chance to bloom. The proper conditions for the establishment
of desert agave seedlings can be a rare occurrence. First they need to
be lucky enough to find themselves within the shaded comfort of a nurse
plant or sheltering rock in order to avoid ground temperatures of 160
degrees. Then they need to receive enough warm season moisture to grow
large enough to be able to survive the first extended drought. This doesn’t
happen very often.
