Agave americana
Author: Ivan Lätti
Photographer: Francelle van Zyl
Agave americana, commonly known as sisal or century plant and in Afrikaans as garingboom (sisal tree), is a robust, drought tolerant exotic reaching heights around 8 m when flowering.
The broadly strap-shaped leaves are armed with spines along their margins and end in big spine-tips. The leaves form a large, ground-level rosette up to 3 m wide, radiating out and up from the plant base. The hard, thickly fibrous blades are grey, sometimes yellow-margined, smooth, hairless, and may be covered in a waxy coating. The leaves store water for use by the plant in its usually arid environment. This is why the entry is made in the Succulents Album, although these plants are not at first glance "fat plants". Leaf length is from 90 cm to 1,5 m.
The monocarpic plant dies after flowering once, hence the century plant name. It may live for years before flowering. Adventitious roots from the base allow new rosettes to grow vegetatively next to an old one, continuing as separate plants after the first one flowered.
The species originates from Mexico and the United States, particularly Texas, from where it has spread, being cultivated as an ornamental in many parts of the world, including Africa. The photo was taken in the Little Karoo.
The habitat is semi-arid valleys, succulent Karoo, thicket and disturbed land. It was introduced in South Africa to control soil erosion, subsequently becoming invasive as it has done elsewhere on earth.
In the past locals have cut the flower stem before full flowering for collecting the sweet liquid in the plant's hollowed heart. This liquid was then fermented to produce an alcoholic beverage. Other uses include protective hedging, fodder, medicine and fibre.
This plant is sometimes called the Mexican aloe but is unrelated to the Aloe genus. It is related to famous agaves like A. sisalana that yields the useful sisal fibre on commercial scale, and A. tequilana or blue agave from which tequila is made (Euston-Brown and Kruger, 2023; Van Wyk and Gericke, 2000; iNaturalist; Wikipedia; https://planetdesert.com).