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Agave celsii var. albicans 'San Ysidro Lane' - This medium-sized clump-forming agave has rosettes up to 2 feet tall and wide with fleshy 3 inch wide by 2 foot long, glaucous gray leaves that gracefully curve upwards. The leaves appear unarmed but have a soft terminal spine and minute, backward curving, brown spines on the edge of the leaves.
Plant in full sun or light shade. This plant is considered tender but withstood the 1990 frost in our garden when it dropped to 18° F and Mary and Gary Irish note in their book "Agaves, Yuccas and Related Plants" that Agave celsii survived temperatures to 12° F in eastern Texas.
The native habitat of this Agave species is thought to be along the eastern rim of the Barranca de Metztitlan in Hidalgo, although Howard Gentry noted in his "Agaves of Continental North America" that the plants in cultivation seem more robust than any seen in the wild. This is one of the most beautiful clump forming Agaves. Dense stands can be seen in the Huntington Botanic Garden in San Marina and along San Ysidro Lane in Montecito across from the exit to Casa de Maria retreat. Since we also grow other wider leafed forms of this beautiful subspecies, we have decided to call this narrower leaf form 'San Ysidro Lane'. The "Illustrated Handbook of Succulent Plants" includes the most recent treatment on Agave by Dr. Jochim Thiede of the Botanic Garden at the University of Hamburg (Botanishes Institut und Bitanischer Garten, Universität Hamburg). In this work Dr. Thiede lists Agave celsii and its varieties as Agave mitis and notes that Howard Gentry misapplied the name Agave celcii (J. Hooker) to this species. Hooker named this plant in 1856 and noted that it came from the garden in Paris, France of M. Cels as an unnamed Agave. Hooker later named it A. celsii in honor of Cels after it flowered at Kew. Bernd Ullrich in "Observations sur Agave mitis" in Succulentes 16(1) in 1993 however lists Agave celsii var. albicans as Agave mitis var. albidior.
San Marcos Growers first introduced this nice plant to the horticultural trade in 1994 as Agave celsii albicans but in 2001, when it was noted that this form had distinctively narrower leaves than was typical for the variety, we gave it the name 'San Ysidro Lane'. We also grow a nice wider leafed selection we call with Agave celsii var. albicans 'UCB'.
The information about Agave celsii var. albicans 'San Ysidro Lane' that is displayed on this web page is based on research conducted in our nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We will also include observations made about this plant as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens that we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We also incorporate comments that we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they share cultural information that aids others growing this plant.
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