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Beschorneria albiflora (Trunking Beschorneria) - This Agave relative forms dense wide rosettes of 2-3 foot long by 3-inch-wide medium green leaves that are held somewhat stiffly from the base but are soft textured to the touch and lax towards the tips. The rosettes are atop trunk-like stalks that can eventually reach 6 feet tall or more. From the center of the rosette emerges the 4-5-foot-long upright arching inflorescence with a bright red stem and side branches that bear pendulous cream to chartreuse colored tubular flowers that are flushed with pink.
Plant in full sun to light shade - plants grown in full sun will require regular summer watering while shaded plants require less irrigation. Hardy to 15-20° F. It withstood temperatures down to 16° F undamaged in northern California in the December 1990 hard freeze. Flowers are attractive to hummingbirds.
Beschorneria albiflora is the southernmost occurring species in the genus and was described from plants collected at Cerro Azul in Oaxaca, Mexico. It is also found in Chiapas, Guatemala and Honduras and is the only Beschorneria that forms an above-ground stem. The name Beschorneria honors the amateur German botanist Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Beschorner (1806-1873) and the specific epithet means "white flowered". This plant was introduced into cultivation by Dr. Dennis Breedlove, Curator Emeritus of the California Academy of Sciences and has been grown in the Berkeley Botanic Garden and Strybing Arboretum for many years.
A beautiful picture of this flower, taken at the UC Berkeley Botanic Garden by Brian Kemble of the Ruth Bancroft Garden, graces the cover of the May-June 2005 issue of the Cactus and Succulent Society of America's bimonthly publication the Cactus and Succulent Journal. In the accompanying text for this image, it is noted by Brian that the specific epithet "albiflora" might be a bit of a stretch as the tepals are only briefly white as the buds begin to open and then quickly flush pink, then red. Our plants from Martin Grantham's seed (Plantsman's Pocket) sold to us by Seedhunt.
Information displayed on this page about Beschorneria albiflora is based on our research conducted about this plant in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about it as it has grown in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.
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