A tender succulent whose rosettes of spiky grey-green leaves are 1-2 m high (3-6 ft.) with a spread of 2-3 m (6-10 ft.). The tall bell-shaped flower spikes, resembling small trees, rise to 8 m (26 ft.). Agaves should not be confused with aloes, and are not botanically related.<\/p>\n
Agave comes from the Greek for admirable. It gained the name \u201ccentury plant\u201d from the mistaken belief that it flowers only after a hundred years but most bloom after ten years.<\/p>\n
Americana \u2018Variegata\u2019 is a cultivar with yellow margins to the leaves.<\/p>\n
Needs well-drained soil, full sun and a minimum temperature of 5\u00b0C (41\u00b0F). Propagate by offsets. In cool climates it can be grown as a conservatory plant but takes up a lot of space.<\/p>\n
The sap has anti-inflammatory properties, and is applied externally for burns, bites and stings, by breaking open a leaf.<\/p>\n
The root has cleansing properties and is used for washing clothes and in commercial soap production. Fibers are woven into rope. The powdered leaf makes snuff and the whole plant is much employed as a stock-proof fence.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A tender succulent whose rosettes of spiky grey-green leaves are 1-2 m high (3-6 ft.) with a spread of 2-3 m (6-10 ft.). The tall bell-shaped flower spikes, resembling small trees, rise to 8 m (26 ft.). Agaves should not be confused with aloes, and are not botanically related. History and traditions Agave comes from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,97,119,105,127,103,134,114,121],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-z","category-full","category-green","category-loamy-soil","category-perennial","category-sandy-soil","category-succulent","category-summer","category-yellow"],"meta_box":{"botanical-name":"Agave americana","common-names":"Century Plant, American Aloe, American Century Plant, Maguey, Mexican Soap Plant","family":"Asparagaceae\r\n","flower_bloom_time":[{"term_id":114,"name":"Summer","slug":"summer","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":114,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":112,"count":163,"filter":"raw"}],"flower_color":[{"term_id":119,"name":"Green","slug":"green","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":119,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":116,"count":34,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":121,"name":"Yellow","slug":"yellow","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":121,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":116,"count":76,"filter":"raw"}],"plant_life_cycle":[{"term_id":127,"name":"Perennial","slug":"perennial","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":127,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":84,"count":133,"filter":"raw"}],"plant_types":[{"term_id":134,"name":"Succulent","slug":"succulent","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":134,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":88,"count":4,"filter":"raw"}],"soil_ph":[{"term_id":109,"name":"Acidic Soil","slug":"acidic-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":109,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":108,"count":148,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":110,"name":"Neutral Soil","slug":"neutral-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":110,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":108,"count":158,"filter":"raw"}],"soil_type":[{"term_id":105,"name":"Loamy Soil","slug":"loamy-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":105,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":101,"count":179,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":103,"name":"Sandy Soil","slug":"sandy-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":103,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":101,"count":147,"filter":"raw"}],"sun_exposure":[{"term_id":97,"name":"Full","slug":"full","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":97,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":96,"count":197,"filter":"raw"}],"usda_hardiness_zones":"Zone: 8 - 11","region_or_country_of_origin":"Mexico and Southwestern United States","plant_mature_size":"
Height<\/strong>: 6 ft. 0 in. - 10 ft. 0 in.<\/span><\/p>\n Width<\/strong>: 6 ft. 0 in. - 10 ft. 0 in.<\/span><\/p>\n"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":301,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299\/revisions\/301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}