Desert Agave
Agave deserti
This photo was taken by Stan Shebs in Palm Canyon, California in March 2005. This image is hosted at Wikipedia.
SUCCULENT : A robust plant with a basal rosete of large, stiff, succulent
leaves. Mature plants can be 1½ m in dia. and 1½ m tall and are unbranched.
Several plants may be found growing in close association having reproduced
vegetatively via pups.
ARMED: Sharp spines at leaf tips and along leaf margins.
LEAVES: Long, blade-like leaves are disposed just above ground level and are thick, succulent.
RANGE: On rocky slopes in Upper Sonoran Desert and Mojave Desert of
Arizona, California and Sonora and hence occasionally into higher elevation Interior
Chaparral and Pinon-Juniper vegetation types.
FLOWERS: Large yellow flowers numbering in the hundreds borne at the apex of tall branching stalks that rise
3 to 6 m. The parent plant will die after blooming as the fruit and seeds develop. Flowers open late spring to early summer.
FRUIT: Five centimeter oblong fleshy capsules with three valves.
Asparagaceae -- Agave/Asparagas Family
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Daily temperatures were exceding 35°C every day when this photo was taken on 26 May 2013 in Alamo Canyon, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Arizona, USA.