Century Plant Family
Agavaceae (ah-gav-AY-see-ee)
Iconic Features
- Leaves large and generally in rosettes
- Flowers with 6 similar tepals
- All species contain saponins
Description (Jepson)
- Monocotyledons (monocots) – monocots are a major lineage of flowering, mostly herbaceous plants, generally characterized by
- Single seed leaf (cotyledon)
- Linear or oblong leaves with parallel venation
- Flower parts in threes
- Pollen grains with a single pore
- Vascular bundles scattered in stem
- Fibrous root system
- Perennial herbs, shrubs, and trees
- Geophytes (plants with underground storage organs)
- Grow from bulbs (short underground stems with fleshy leaves, e.g. onions) or rhizomes (horizontal underground stems)
- Leaves
- Usually develop as rosettes at the top of a woody stem
- Simple (not divided into leaflets)
- Generally long and narrow
- Generally tough and fibrous; sometimes succulent
- Often with a spine at the tip and sometimes along the margins
- Flowers
- Inflorescence (flower arrangement) a very long panicle (branching stem with flowers opening from the bottom up)
- Bisexual flowers with 3 petals and 3 sepals (outer flower parts), in 2 separate whorls, similar in appearance and collectively called tepals
- Ovary superior (above the attachment of other flower parts) or inferior (below the attachment of other flower parts)
- Fruit is a capsule (a dry, multi-chambered fruit that splits open at maturity)
Notes
- Approximately 637 species worldwide
- Found especially in dry and desert habitats
- Includes agave, joshua tree, and yucca
- Geophytes (e.g. plants growing from bulbs, corms, rhizomes, or enlarged taproots) are well adapted to survive fire, our Mediterranean climate’s long, dry summers, and extended droughts
- Above-ground growth dies back after flowering, while underground the plant survives with stored water and nutrients
- All plants in this family contain saponins, with various human uses
- Scientific name from the included genus Agave, from the Greek agauos, “admirable” or “noble,” for the appearance of the century plant (Agave americana)
- Soap plant (Chlorogalum pomeridianum var. pomeridianum) is the only representative of this family in Edgewood
Browse Edgewood Plants in this Family
