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Agave chazaroi - A beautiful and recently described species of Agave that forms relatively open rosettes to 5 feet wide with broad stiff glossy deep green young leaves, broadest in the middle, with slightly wavy narrow reddish brown margins - older leaves a paler yellow green. Young plants have small spines along the leaf margins but aside from the terminal spine, the mature leaves are nearly spineless, with only small teeth-like spines near the leaf base. At maturity is produced a tall unbranched spike of flowers.
This plant is so new that we are just guessing at its cultural needs. Its native Jalisco has a semi-arid climate with little annual temperature fluctuations and a dry winter when temperatures are slightly cooler. To determine how best to grow this species we have plants in different locations at our nursery and so far a plant in our full coastal sun with no protection to the light frosts we have had so far has shown promising results - likely it will need some shade and frost protection away from the coast.
Agave chazaroi was discovered near Tequila, Jalisco, Mexico at around 3,300 feet. It was described by J. Antonio Vázquez-Garcia & Oscar Valencia-Pelayo in 2007 who named it to honor Mexican botanist Miguel Cházaro-Basańez (1949-2023). It has been placed by some in the Agave subsection of Serrulatae (with Agave bracteosa) or the Amolae group (with Agave attenuata) while others believe this may be the same as a plant described by Joseph Hooker in 1903 as Agave bakeri, a name previously used for Agave karwinskii and so deemed illegitimate and renamed a year later by Alwin Berger to Agave gilberti. The debate goes on regarding this but from our inexperienced position these plants appear to be quite different. Our plants are from seed collected by Miguel Chazaro at Canyon of the Rio Grande Santiago, North of Tequila, Jalisco. Our thanks to Brian Kemble of the Ruth Bancroft Garden for sharing this seed with us.
The information displayed on this page about Agave chazaroi is based on our research conducted about this plant from books in our nursery library as well as from information that is provided by reliable online resources. We also have included our own observations made about it as it grew in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers when we had them in our nursery field. We 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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