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Family: Agavaceae
Scientific name: Agave horrida Lemaire ex Jacobi
ssp. perotensis Ullrich ssp. Nov.
Cact. Suc. Mex. 35(4):80, ill. )P.96), 1990
Remarks:
Agave horrida ssp. perotensis is a subspecies of
Agave horrida often incorrectly named as Agave obscura.
It has green leaves with prominent, grey-white thorns along the margins
and is thus easy to distinguish from the standard A. obscura
that has light green leaves and reddish teeth.
Origin: Enemic to a small area between Perote in the state
of Veracruz and Zacatepec just over the border with the state of Puebla.
This plant grows some 50 km to the south of the habitat of Agave
obscura to which it is often confused.
Habitat: Grows on lava fields on rocky
mountains along with Pinion trees.
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Description: A. horrida
subsp. perotensis is a small to medium sized Agave,
with solitary and compact rosettes. Plant belonging to this taxon were
previously misinterpreted as A. obscura.
Stem:
Acaulescent.
Leaves: Pale or dark green, rigid, strongly armed. 25-40 cm long
x 5-8 cm wide, elliptic-lanceolate to ovate, slightly narrowed above the
base. Straight or slightly curved toward the centre of the plant. Upper
surface flat or slightly hollowed, lower surface convex, margins strong,
corneous, uninterrupted with straight or
curved marginal teeth often flexuous and bent downward (sometime
hooked), of variable size: small (3-5 mm tall) or big (10-15 mm tall)
1-3 cm apart, flattened at the base and usually grey (or reddish-brown
when very young). Apical spine,
conic-subulate,
pungent, 3-5 cm long broadly decurrent.
Flowers: Blooms appear lumped together in a spiralling sequence
on the upper third of a 3-5 m tall tapering inflorescence. Flowers
purple to yellowish-red, 35-40 mm, long, tube shortly funnel shaped,3-5
mm long, lobes, equal, 15-16 mm long on a short peduncle. When the Agave
start to flourish it is possible to observe a gradual changes in the
centre of the plant, the leaves becoming smaller as did the teeth, some
of which vanished completely. Once the flowering process start often the
plant starts to produced offsets both at the base of and centrally
within the plant.
Seeds: Lunate 3-4 x 2.5 mm.
Propagation: Usually by seed.
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Cultivation
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