Agave salmiana (also known as maguey pulquero and green maguey) is a species of the family Asparagaceae, native to central and southern Mexico. It is also reportedly naturalized in South Africa, Italy and Spain, specially in the Canary Islands. This species, also called agave of Salm or Salm-Dick, is dedicated to the German prince and botanist Joseph zu Salm-Reifferscheidt-Dyck (1773-1861).

Description

Agave salmiana presents a spiral-shaped rosette with large flared and erect leaves. These leaves are thick, dark green with a large point at the tip and strong spines on the edges. When a leaf has unfolded, it leaves an imprint on the leaf underneath. Like most agaves, the species is monocarpic, that is to say it only flowers once and then dies. This flowering occurs after 15 to 25 years producing a vertical floral stem, typically up to 4 m long and bearing greenish-yellow flowers. The largest specimens have been significantly taller. One specimen growing at the Strawberry Canyon Botanical Garden on the campus of U. C. Berkeley, Berkeley, California in 1974 produced an inflorescence with a total height of 52 ft of which the scape or peduncle was about 39 ft and the panicle per se was 13 ft. Hermann J.H. Jacobsen states that the inflorescence of A. salmiana has reached an overall height of 62 ft, making the inflorescence of A. salmiana the tallest of any known species of plant. Old plants reach 1.8 m in height and the leaves form a rosette 3.6 m in diameter. The variety A. salmiana var. ferox is often encountered in cultivation. The epithet ferox is due to the hard and long (up to 8 cm) spines.

Distribution

Originally from southern and central Mexico, it was introduced into gardens with a Mediterranean climate in Europe and sometimes escaped into the wild, thus becoming naturalised in some parts of southern Europe.

Cultivation

Cultivation is easy in a well-drained sandy soil with sunny exposure. For a pot culture, it requires a container of very large size to remain in a harmonious appearance. It can be used to stabilise a slope. It can withstand a light frost if it is completely dry. It is multiplied more easily by planting shoots than by seedlings.