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Agave potatorum 'Mariscal' (Butterfly Agave) - A selection of Agave potatorum with broad gray leaves that form in an open symmetrical rosette to 1 to 2 feet tall by 2 to 3 feet wide. The many 10- to 18-inch-long leaves are slightly reflexed back near the tips with chestnut brown spines; the 1 inch long terminal spine is slightly wavy and the short marginal spines are on tubercle-like prominences. This selection differs in having redder spines and margins than are typical and the 1-inch-long red terminal spine is very wavy. When mature a flower spike rises 10 to 20 feet bearing light green flowers tinged with red and subtended with red bracts. This agave rarely offsets so, after maturing, which in our experience begins to occur when plants are as young as 10 years old, it will flower (usually during the fall) and then the entire plant declines and dies.
Plant in full sun with little irrigation required in coastal gardens but provide some supplemental irrigation in hotter inland gardens. Winter hardy to around 25 degrees. This species is quite variable in form; some plants have flatter leaves radiating straight out from the crown while others have leaves that are slightly cupped along the margins and are reflexed back.
The species Agave potatorum ranges through the semi-arid highlands between 4,000 and 7,000 feet in Oaxaca and southern Puebla. For information on the species see our listing of Agave potatorum. This beautiful agave was appreciated by the Nahuatl Indians who called it 'papalometl' meaning "Butterfly Agave". The specific name "potatorum" is the generative of the Latin word 'potator' meaning "of the drinkers" in reference to the use of this plant in making alcoholic beverages.
Our plants were vegetatively grown from a particularly nice Agave potatorum were purchased from Mariscal Cactus and Succulents in Fallbrook, California – the plant was cored and vegetatively propagated. This plant is very similar to the best of our seedling plants that we call Agave potatorum 'Swizzle Stick' with both having leaves cupped along the margins and reflexed back towards the tips with a long reddish terminal spine that is distinctively wavy in a manner our friend Jeff Chemnick calls a swizzle stick. Our best selection with these characteristics however is the plant we named Agave potatorum 'Cherry Swizzle'.
Information displayed on this page about Agave potatorum 'Mariscal' 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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