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Agave angustifolia 'Marginata' (Caribbean Agave) - A medium sized Agave to 4 feet tall by 4 feet wide with a dense rosette, rounded in outline and atop a short trunk 1 to 2 feet tall that is usually hidden until plants get some age (about when they bloom!). The 2-foot-long leaves are fairly stiff, narrow (2-4 inches) and concave towards the middle with a broad central band colored pale green and strong creamy white margins that often have a flush of pink. When in flower, which does not occur until this plant is at least 10 years old and often much later, it sends up an 8-to-10-foot spike with a well-branched panicle bearing greenish-white flowers. Though mostly solitary in youth, after flowering this plant often suckers and small colonies can form. Bulbils also form in the inflorescence to help perpetuate this plant. These bulbils can vary in their amount of variegation.
Plant in full sun to light shade and irrigate occasionally to very little. It is cold hardy to around 20°F. A very attractive medium sized agave that is a bit less wicked than some of the larger species but still should be planted away from pathways.
Agave angustifolia is one of the most wide ranging of the agave with a natural distribution from Costa Rica in the south ranging north to Tamaulipas along the Atlantic coast and to northwestern Sonora along the Pacific coast where it can be found in tropical savannah, thorn forest and drought deciduous tropical forests from sea level to about 5,000 feet in elevation. This variegated form or one quite similar was reported to have arisen in the botanical garden of the College of Science at Poona, India, about 1895. It has been widely distributed around the world, particularly in subtropical areas and is sometimes called the Caribbean Agave. In Joachin Thiede's treatment in the Illustrated Handbook of Succulent Plants: Monocotyledons (2001) he lists the Agave angustifolia complex under Agave vivipara and this plant as Agave vivipara 'Marginata', but this name is not widely followed in the horticultural trades with most still referring to this plant as Agave angustifolia. A particularly pale form that sported from this plant and is often called Agave angustifolia 'Woodrowii'.
The information displayed on this page about Agave angustifolia 'Marginata' is based on the research we conducted about it in our nursery horticultural library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include some of our own observations made about this plant as it grows in the nursery gardens and other gardens that we have visited, as well how the crops 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 additional information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information that will aid others to better grow it.
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