Plant in full to part sun along the coast but provide some shade in hotter climates and water occasionally. This is one of the most cold tolerant of the large agave, tolerating temperatures down to 5° F.

Agave gentryi 'Jaws' was an offset collected by the John Fairey and Carl Schoenfeld in the late 1990's from 8,000 feet elevation in the mountainous areas of Nuevo Leon in northern Mexico where it grows in pine forests. It was introduced by Yucca Do Nursery.

The species Agave gentryi was first described by Howard Scott Gentry in Agaves of Continental North America. He described this plant as Agave macroculmis and noted that the leaves grew to 45-85 cm (18-33 inches) long by 17-26 cm (7 -10 inches) wide. In Joachim Thiede's more recent treatment of Agave in Illustrated Handbook of Succulent Plants: Monocotyledons he cites Bernd Ullich, who had renamed and described this plant as Agave gentryi after noting the name Agave macroculmis should be rejected because it was a synonym for Agave atrovirens. Thiede describes the leaf size as 60-100 cm (24 – 39 inches) long x 17-26 cm (7 -10 inches) wide. For more information on this species see our listing of Agave gentryi.

We were contacted by the University of California Berkeley Botanic Garden who questioned the size that we listed for this plant because of a plant within their collection they had received as Agave gentryi from seed also collected by John Fairey in 1993 from a similar habitat that 'Jaws' came from in the neighboring state of Tamaulipas had reached 8 feet tall by 10 feet wide. This plant in Berkeley far exceeds the described dimensions of the species and while both the Berkeley plant and 'Jaws' were collected by the same person in close proximity, we do not know that these two plants are the same clone or why the plant at the Berkeley Botanic Garden has gotten so large.

We first received micropropagated laboratory (tissue cultured) plants of 'Jaws' in 2005 from Hans Hansen at Shady Oak Nursery in Waseca, Minnesota through an agreement made with Yucca Do Nursery and we grew and sold this attractive plant from 2006 until 2018. Photos on this page courtesy of Yucca Do Nursery. 

The information displayed on this page about Agave gentryi 'Jaws' is based on the research we have conducted about it in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about this plant as it grows in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant have performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we have received from others and welcome hearing from anyone with information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information that will aid others to better grow it.