Agave americana L.

Spice Apex Detail In the field In the university

Family: AGAVACEAE

Genus: Agave

Catalan common name: : Maguei. Agave. Atzavara. Donarda. Figuerassa. Pita. Pitera. Piterassa. Punyalera.

Spanish common name: Pita.

Province distribution: Alacant. Balearic Islands. Barcelona. Castelló. Girona. Lleida. Tarragona. València.

Distribution in the islands: Mallorca. Menorca. Ibiza. Formentera.

General distribution (Phytogeography): America

Uses and properties: Edible or foodstuffs. Furniture, construction and tools. Medicinal. Textile industry.

Flowering time: JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Life-forms: Phanerophyte.

Habitats: Cultivated fields, path and road sides, disturbed zones. Rocky coastlines. Rock crevices and cliff faces. Garden plants. Quercus coccifera and Chamaerops humilis litoral maquis. Wild olive trees and other sclerophyllous shrublands. Juniperus phoenicea subsp. turbinata forest. Pine wood and shrubland with rosemary and thyme garigue. A cultivated plant that is well-naturalized throughout the Mediterranean and other parts of the world. Can colonize many different habitats: cliffs, littoral maquias or the interior, cultivated fields and disturbed zones.

Description: A plant with a very slightly developed stalk, with enormous, fleshy, lanceolate, ash-coloured leaves reaching up to 2m with a pointed end and spiny margin which are triangular in cross section. The distal part of the plant ends in a reddish-black horny point about 3cm long. The margin of the leaves is subsinuate with thin, twisted, widely spaced spines that are a centimetre long. The inflorescence is a panicle of 5-8 m with pale yellow flowers which appear when the plant is around 10 years old. This is made up of 20-30 horizontal branches, each one with a flat inflorescence with yellow flowers. After flowering, the plant dies.

Observations: The sap from the leaves used to be used to clean black mourning clothes because normal soap left whitish circles.