Agave Notes & Photos Lorena B. Moore Observations  from several years of "agave watching" in southern Arizona.   LEFT:  Ironwing Tarot Six of Spikes. Click thumbnail for larger image.

Agave palmeri Palmer's Agave
Agave palmeri is the most common agave species in southern Arizona, and is a familiar plant in desert grassland, chaparral, and Madrean evergreen woodland communities from 3500-6000 feet.  Typical plants have long, narrow, swordlike leaves of uniform green, few or no offsets, and very tall flowerstalks.  Plants growing at the lower limit of the elevation range often look quite different from the typical form, though they have not been formally described or given recognition as a separate variety.  Leaf rosettes are much smaller, with grayish green color-banded leaves and abundant offsets or "pups".  Flowerstalks are shorter, with fewer flowers and smaller seedpods.  Plants bloom up to a month later than the typical variety, even though they are growing at a lower elevation.  The smaller form may be an adaptation to hotter, drier growing conditions.  With multiple offsets, plants may be more likely to survive predation by agave weevils and rhinoceros beetles.
I have found the typical A. palmeri growing with the smaller form in the Santa Rita, Mule, Atascosa, and Empire Mountains, which suggests that the two are separate varieties, not just adaptations to local growing conditions.

Typical A. palmeri:  Large rosette, no offsets, leaves of uniform green.  Mule Mts., AZ	Small form found at the low end of elevation range for A. palmeri.  Medium-sized rosettes, several to many offsets, grayish green cross-banded leaves.	Forest form of A. palmeri: many offsets, spreading bluish green leaves, weak marginal teeth.  Huachuca Mts., AZ. Also found in the Santa Rita and Chiricahua Mts.

Seedpods of typical A. palmeri and small form.  Both are from the same locality.	Small low-elevation form of A. palmeri. Bajada of Santa Rita Mts, AZ.

Mother of Thousands:  Small form of A. palmeri growing wild in my yard. About one hundred offsets.  Original rosette killed by weevils in 2002.	Full Moon - 6/1/07:  Flower spike!	Full Moon - 8/27/07

Offsets from the "Mother of Thousands", drawn life-size, 6.5" and 3.5". Handground green clays and red ochres in egg tempera.

A. parryi	A. parryi var. huachucensis	A. parryi var. truncata (cultivated) Three offsets (one hidden) sprouted within this rosette after the center was killed by weevils.

A. deserti var. simplex	A. parviflora	A. schottii