Havard's Century Plant

Agave havardiana hybridizes with A. lechuguilla to form A. × glomeruliflora, with which it may also hybridize.

Plants acaulescent, sparsely suckering; rosettes usually solitary, (4–)5–8 × (5–)10–15 dm, rather open. Leaves ascending, 30–60 (–70) × 15–27 cm; blade glaucous-gray to gray-green, not cross-zoned, lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, rigid, adaxially concave, abaxially convex; margins straight, armed, teeth single, well defined, (5–)7–10 mm, 1.5–2 cm apart; apical spine dark brown to gray, subulate, 3–5(–10) cm. Scape 2–7 m. Inflorescences paniculate, not bulbiferous, dense; bracts persistent, lanceolate, (3–)5–10 cm; lateral branches 12–20, slightly ascending, comprising distal 1/2–2/3 of inflorescence, longer than 10 cm. Flowers 21–48 per cluster, erect, 6.8–9 cm; perianth yellow to yellow-green, tube funnelform, 14–22 × 15–22 mm, limb lobes erect, slightly unequal, 18–24 mm; stamens long-exserted; filaments inserted irregularly ca. mid perianth tube, erect, yellow, 5–6.5 cm; anthers yellow, 25–30 mm; ovary 3–4 cm, neck constricted, 2–8 mm. Capsules short-pedicellate, oblong to obovoid, 4–5.7 cm, apex beaked. Seeds 6–7 mm.

Tex.; nw Mexico.

Flowering summer--early fall.

Gravelly to rocky, often calcareous places in grasslands, desert scrub, pinyon-juniper, and oak woodlands; 1200--2000m.

Agave havardiana is a plant species native to the Big Bend area of western Texas as well as Chihuahua and Coahuila. It prefers grassy to rocky slopes or woodlands at elevations of 1200–2000 m.

Agave havardiana is an acaulescent species forming rosettes low to the ground, sometimes creating suckers but not forming large colonies like some other species. Leaves are up to 70 cm (28 inches) long, with teeth along the margins and at the tip. Flowering stalks can be up to 7 m (23 feet) tall, with yellow to yellow-green flowers. Fruits are dry, oblong, up to 6 cm (2.4 inches) long.

This species is under threat from habitat loss, mostly for cattle ranching.