Agave Mediopicta Alba - American Agave

Agave Mediopicta 'Alba' is a beautiful form of the Mexican Agave, which stands out for its reduced growth and its superbly coloured leaves, marked by a wide white central band. Perfectly adapted to dry and hot climates and poor soils, but slightly less hardy than the type, it has a strongly exotic silhouette, forming rosettes of large, stiff, succulent, and pointed leaves. It is also a well-armed plant, with sharp tips to be wary of. Flowering is rarely observed in this form. When it does flower, it emerges from the hearts of the oldest rosettes, in the form of tall, majestic flower stalks bearing panicles of yellow-green flowers. A perennial with a unique design, highly appreciated in landscape art for its unusual silhouette and absolutely stunning colour.

Native to Mexico and the southwestern United States, the extremely decorative American Agave is above all a botanical species adapted to semi-desert climates, now naturalised almost everywhere in the world, including Pakistan and China. It belongs to the Asparagaceae family, just like Yuccas or Tuberose. This perennial succulent herbaceous plant has rhizomes capable of producing suckers, but it is almost devoid of aerial stems.

Agave Mediopicta 'Alba', probably derived from the protoamericana American Agave, distinguishes itself from the type by its more modest growth and its greenish-blue leaves adorned with a wide white-cream central band. Slow-growing, this perennial is composed of about thirty leaves forming a basal rosette, 1 m (3.3 ft) tall and wide. The thick, wide, pointed leaves can reach a length of 40 cm (15.7 in) and a width of 15 cm (5.9 in). They are smooth, rigid, and sheathing at the base, bordered by grey to brown spines along their entire length. The tip of each leaf, equipped with a sharp spine, is arranged diagonally downwards and measures 2 cm to 4 cm (0.8 in to 1.6 in) in length. Occasionally, a rosette that has reached the venerable age of 15 to 20 years or even more, produces a flower stalk reaching a height of 3 m to 6 m (9.8 ft to 19.7 ft). It bears numerous horizontal branches. The branches bear flattened and spherical panicles, 7 cm to 10 cm (2.8 in to 3.9 in) wide, composed of a myriad of small yellow-green flowers. The rosette, classified as semelparous, dies after flowering, which lasts several months, having taken care to produce a few small peripheral rosettes to ensure its perpetuation. Note that this variety does not produce many offsets and is therefore not invasive.

In a mild climate, this agave will suit a large rockery or at the edges of a dry garden, where its strange yet proud silhouette will stand out against a blue sky. It can be associated with the prickly pear, Yucca rigida, Nolina siberica, giant fennel, fairly hardy candle cacti (Cleistocactus strausii, Cylindropuntia imbricata), and equally robust echium from the Canary Islands. Gardeners in colder regions can plant it in a very large pot on a terrace, carefully choosing the most sheltered and sunny spot to recreate a setting inspired by gardens and patios that flourish in more exotic climes. Cultivated in this way, it will show slightly less growth. This plant is hardy down to about -10° C (14° F) in perfectly drained soil, even dry in winter.

The Agave is also an edible plant, used in Mexico to make mescal, an alcoholic beverage obtained by fermenting its juice, which is rich in sugars. It is also used in traditional medicine in Mexico, Brazil, and India, and has proven antifungal properties. Very attractive to bees and nectar-feeding insects, the inflorescences attract many pollinators.