Common Name: CENTURY PLANT FAMILY
Habit: Perennial herb, shrub, tree, fibrous succulent or not, from bulbs or rhizomes. Stem: above ground or not, branched or not. Leaf: simple, deciduous or not, basal or in terminal rosettes, generally sessile, linear, lanceolate, oblanceolate or ovate, fibrous or not, thin and flexible or thick and rigid or succulent; margin entire, fine-serrate, dentate, or with filaments, tips rigid or flexible, with a spine or not. Flower: bisexual; perianth parts 6, in 2 petal-like whorls, free or +- fused; stamens 6, +- fused to perianth, filaments often wide, succulent; ovary superior or inferior, chambers 3, style 1 (thick, poorly defined), stigma head-like or 3-lobed. Fruit: capsule, indehiscent, loculicidal, or septicidal. Seed: few to many, +- flat or ovoid, generally black.
Genera In Family: 24 genera, 637 species: worldwide.
eFlora Treatment Author: Dale W. McNeal, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Dale W. McNeal, Thomas J. Rosatti, Bruce G. Baldwin.

Common Name: CENTURY PLANT
Habit: Shrub-like, stem often short, forming basal rosettes, scapose, often rhizomed, generally dying after flowering. Leaf: long-lived, sessile, lance-linear to ovate, thick, generally rigid, often fleshy, glabrous, armed with marginal teeth, spine at tip. Inflorescence: panicle-, raceme-, or spike-like, bracted, often with bulblets. Flower: [1] paired, or in clusters of 3--40; perianth generally funnel- or bell-shaped, yellow to green-yellow, parts petal-like, 6 in 2 whorls, fused basally, lobes erect to ascending or +- spreading distally; stamens 6; ovary inferior, 3-chambered. Fruit: oblong to ovoid, often beaked, loculicidal. Seed: many, +- flat, black.
Etymology: (Greek: noble, for imposing stature)
Unabridged Note: Cultivated material may be identified using Gentry 1982 Agaves of Continental N. America. Univ. Arizona Press.
eFlora Treatment Author: James L. Reveal
Reference: Reveal & Hodgson 2002 FNANM 26:442--461