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.
LEAVES: A stout spine at the leaf tip and hooked spines along the leaf
margins.
RANGE: On rocky slopes in Upper Sonoran Desert and Mojave Desert of
Arizona, California and Sonora and hence into higher elevation Interior
Chaparral and Pinon-Juniper vegetation types.
FLOWERS: Large yellow flowers borne at top of branching stalks that rise
3 to 6 m. The parent plant will die after blooming.
Flowers open late spring to early summer.
FRUIT: Five centimeter oblong fleshy capsules with three valves.