Herbario Virtual del Mediterráneo Occidental
Àrea de Botànica, Departament de Biologia, Universitat de les Illes Balears
Agave americana L.
Family : AGAVACEAE
Genus : Agave
Catalan common name : : Maguei. Agave. Atzavara. Donarda. Figuerassa. Pita. Pitera. Piterassa. Punyalera.
Spanish common name : Pita.
Province distribution : Alicante. Balearic Islands. Barcelona. Castellón. Gerona. Lérida. Tarragona. Valencia.
Distribution in the islands : Formentera. Ibiza. Mallorca. Minorca.
General distribution : America
Flowering time : June. July. August. September.
Life-forms : Phanerophyte.
Habitat : 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.
Uses and properties : Edible or foodstuffs. Furniture, construction and tools. Medicinal. Textile industry.
Observations : The sap from the leaves used to be used to clean black mourning clothes because normal soap left whitish circles.
Status : Alien species.
Origen : Mèxic
Location on-campus UIB : Darrera edifici Ramón Llull i a la sortida del Campus per Can Amorós.
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.
