Agave delamateri

Plants acaulescent, freely suckering; rosettes solitary to cespitose, 9–10 × 9–10 dm, open. Leaves erect or erect-ascending, 50–63(–73) × 7.5–9 cm; blade glaucous-gray to -bluish, cross-zoned, lanceolate or oblanceolate, rigid, adaxially concave, abaxially convex; margins straight or repand, armed, teeth single, well defined, 3.5–5 mm, 1–3 cm apart, interstitial teeth (3–)6–12, mostly along distal 2/3 of margins; apex conspicuously incurved, spine brownish gray, slender, 2.8–3.5(–4.9) cm. Scape 4.5–6 m. Inflorescences broadly paniculate, not bulbiferous, open; bracts persistent, triangular, 1–5.5 cm; lateral branches 12–17, horizontal, comprising distal 3/5–5/8 of inflorescence, longer than 10 cm. Flowers 14–20 per cluster, erect, 4.7–6.7(–7) cm; perianth cream, tinged with light green, tube not shallow, campanulate, 11–16 × 11–16 mm, limb lobes persistent and often leathery during and after anthesis, spreading, unequal, 9–18 mm, apex flushed with maroon; stamens long-exserted; filaments inserted at 1 level ca. mid perianth tube, erect, yellow, 3–5.3 cm, apex flushed with maroon; anthers yellow, 11–20 mm; ovary 2.1–2.9 cm, neck slightly constricted, 1–3.5 mm. Capsules not seen. Seeds unknown.

Phenology: Flowering early summer.
Habitat: Gravelly places with desert scrub, rarely in chaparral or pinyon-juniper woodlands
Elevation: 700–1600 m

Distribution

• Generated Map
• Legacy Map

Ariz.

Discussion

Of conservation concern.

Agave delamateri is known only from about 90 individual clones and always in association with Mogollon or Salado settlement features. The plant is probably a cultivar derived from A. palmeri or a closely related taxon by pre-Columbian people. Agave delamateri hybridizes with A. chrysantha, acting as a pollen donor.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.