Widespread with several ornate varieties, this 1–2-foot tall by 2–3-foot wide succulent produces a dense, compact rosette of rigid, thorny, sword-like leaves. Agaves grow for several decades producing many offshoots, or pups, then send up a towering bloom stalk and die. This adaptable species, cold-hardy to –10 degrees F., is favored for landscapes throughout the Southwest. Apaches and other tribes roasted the stem heart and used the long leaf fibers for cordage. Note the tall flower stalk with flat-bottomed clusters of yellow flowers.

FLOWERS: June–August. When mature, the rosette sends up a flower stalk (scape) 10–20-feet tall with 10–40 short branches, each tipped with a dense cluster of tubular 2 1/2–3-inch long (6–7/5 cm) flowers, buds reddish, flowers bright yellow. Fruit is a dry, oval capsule 1–1 3/8-inches long (2.5–3.5 cm). The flowers produce a supermarket of pollen and nectar for insects and hummingbirds.

LEAVES: Rosette with up to 100 overlapping, glaucous, gray to light green leaves; blades 7–24-inches long (18–60 cm) by 2–5-inches wide (5–12 cm), widest in the middle, lined with vicious, cat-claw spines 1/2–1-inches apart (12–25 mm), tapering to a thorn tip 1/2–1 1/4-inches long (1.2–3 cm).

HABITAT: Gravelly limestone, granite soils; desert grassland and scrub, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa woodlands.

ELEVATION: 4,000–9,200 feet.

RANGE: AZ, NM, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Two subspecies in NM: ssp neomexicana tends to be smaller with flat-topped rosettes of blades with evenly tapered tips, while ssp. parryi has a rounded, ball-like rosette of broadly oval blades with abrupt tips. Palmer’s Agave, A. palmeri, in sw NM, has an open (not dense) rosette of narrow leaves and a flower stalk with only 8–28 branches with loose (not dense) clusters.

NM COUNTIES: Common in the southern half of NM in low- to mid-elevation, arid habitats: Catron, Chaves, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Hidalgo, Luna, Otero, Sierra, Socorro.