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Agave oteroi 'Lanky Wanky' - A curious agave that has a tight rosette of green leaves with large pale teeth along a brown margin at the tip of an ever-elongating stem that retains its lower leaves. Grows upright at first but lays over under its own weight unless staked.
Plant in full sun along the coast but seems to appreciate some protection from afternoon sun in hot interior gardens. It has proven cold hardy to short duration temperatures down to 23° but leaf margins can burn much below this. It is an interesting plant for the collector.
Agave oteroi's center of distribution is along the Rio Hondo and its side drainages. The Rio Hondo forms part of the border between the Mexican states of Puebla and Oaxaca. The specific epithet honors Mexican plant collector Felipe Otero, who first collected this plant in 1984 in Sierra Mixteca, the mountainous region located between the states of Puebla and Oaxaca in south-central Mexico. For many years this species was just labeled with his initials and collect number as FO-076. For more information about this and the subsequent official naming of this species, see our listing for Agave oteroi.
We originally got this plant from Santa Barbara plantsman John Bleck as "Agave parrasana (crested form) and he noted that he had received it from Mike Buckner (AKA The Plant Man). The original plant was crested but our cutting did not retain the crested growth habit but instead exhibited this bizarre elongating stem clad with triangular leaves making it look a bit more like a large vicious Haworthia or Astroloba then it does an agave. Though originally associated with Agave parrasana, neither the parent or our plants appear to be from this species and looks to be more akin to the plant later was described as Agave oteroi by Greg Starr and Tristan Davis in the Summer 2019 issue of Cactus and Succulent Journal (Vol. 91 N. 2). We named it in 2011 and sold this plant at our nursery off an on but unusually just shared it with fellow agave collectors who were taken with its odd form. This plant has also been called Agave titanota 'Tower' and A. titanota 'Tower of Babel'.
The information displayed on this page about Agave oteroi 'Lanky Wanky' 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.
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