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Agave pedunculifera comes from the Mexican states of Sinaloa, Durango, Nayarit and Jalisco, where it can be found growing along sheer cliff faces of rocks that are of volcanic origin. The name for the genus is one given by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus when he described the species Agave americana. The specific epithet comes from the Latin words 'pedunculus' which means a "little foot" or a "stalk" and 'fero', meaning "to bear" or "to carry" combined to mean bearing to have a peduncle or flower stalk (don't they all?). Ut was first described under this name in 1920 by the American botanist, entomologist and explorer William Trelaese, who later became the director of the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis. It is most closely related to Agave attenuata, from which it differs in being more acaulescent (lacking a stem or trunk) and having small teeth on the leaf margin as compared to Agave attenuata which holds its rosettes of smooth margined leaves on long heavy stems that go both upright and outward to form a large clump. Agave pedunculifera also differs in having a more erect inflorescence unlike Agave attenuata, which is commonly called the foxtail agave for the way the inflorescence arches over. Agave pedunculifera is also related to Agave vazquezgarciae, from which it differs by having shorter inflorescences, smaller flowers and broader and softer leaves without a stout terminal spine, and Agave ellemeetiana, a plant that we also grew that has shorter, broader and harder green leaves with finer denticulate leaf margins. The German botanist Bernd Ullrich regarded Agave attenuata and Agave pedunculifera to be part of the same variable complex and in 2006 reclassified Agave pedunculifera as the infraspecific taxa, Agave attenuata subspecies dentata with the subspecies epithet referencing the teeth on the leaf margins, but we continued to list this plant under the name we received it until such time as this name becomes more widely used.
We first admired this plant in the Santa Barbara garden of Jeff Chemnick, where it was growing in the shade of a Dracaena draco. Our plants from seed provided to us by Brian Kemble of the Ruth Bancroft Garden and from plants we received from Greg Starr of Starr Nursery in Tucson Arizona.
The information displayed on this page about Agave pedunculifera 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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