What Is Agave? A Quick Guide to These Striking but Underappreciated Succulents

Perhaps you never knew that agaves could be this beautiful.

With their unusual leaf shapes, sharp and vivid spines, distinctive variegation, and towering flower spikes that take decades to grow, they express a beauty all their own. To grow agaves well, you must give them plenty of sunlight; the more light they get, the more beautiful they become. In addition, agaves enter dormancy in winter, so remember not to water heavily, or the roots will easily rot.

1. Agave salmiana var. ferox

Also called the large-spined agave. The leaves are long and sword-shaped, widest in the middle and tapering at both ends, with three-angled dark brown long spines about 3 cm long. The leaves are grayish green, convex in the middle of the leaf surface, gradually transitioning to flat and concave toward the tip. The flower stalk can reach 3 m tall, with red flowers. It can be propagated by seed or by division.

2. Sansevieria cylindrica

Also known as the cylindrical snake plant, bowstring hemp, and spear sansevieria, among other names. The stem is short or absent, and the fleshy leaves are slender and cylindrical, tapering to a point at the tip, hard in texture, growing upright and sometimes slightly curved, with leaves reaching over 1 m long. The surface is dark green with horizontal grayish green tiger-stripe markings. The inflorescence is a raceme, with small white or pale pink flowers.

3. Agave 'Kissho Kan'

A member of the Asparagaceae family, Agave genus, also known as Kissho Ten and sometimes called red-spined agave. The plant readily produces offsets and is mostly propagated from them; the offsets have narrower, longer leaves with less obvious spines. Once the plant matures, the leaves become broader and shorter, and attractive spines appear.

4. Agave victoriae-reginae

A medium-sized variety with fleshy leaves arranged in a rosette. The leaves are triangular-pyramidal, tapering at the tip, flat on the upper surface and rounded with a slight keel-like ridge on the back. The leaves are green with irregular white lines, and there is white horny material along the leaf margins and on the keel ridge on the back of the leaf, with a hard black spine at the leaf tip. The plant only blooms after about 30 years of growth; the small flowers are pale green, and the plant dies after flowering.

5. Agave 'Iceberg'

A top-tier, highly prized variety among agaves. The leaves are thick and fleshy, with a ring of yellow variegation along the margins and dark green in the center of the leaf. In mature plants, many irregular white lines appear on both sides of the leaves; the leaf margins are rough and spineless, and the leaf tips have long grayish white spines.