Agave NICKELSIAE - King Ferdinand Agave, Nickels' Agave, King of Agaves, Agave nickelsiae.
Agave is a genus of evergreen perennial herbaceous plants in the Asparagus family (Asparagaceae), including about 300 species distributed in the Caribbean islands and in arid regions of North, Central, and South America. No more than 50 species are common in cultivation.
Representatives of the genus form rosettes of fleshy leaves, often with prickly margins and sharp tips. The leaves can be wide or narrow, colored in gray-green, glaucous, or green shades, sometimes with variegated coloration. The stem, as a rule, is shortened. The plants are adapted to prolonged droughts, spreading outward with powerful roots, absorbing moisture from the surface layers of the soil and storing it in their leaves.
Flowering occurs at the age of 15-20 years, after which the plant dies. A tall flower stalk emerges from the rosette of robust leaves, bearing an inflorescence in the form of a panicle or raceme at the top, usually yellow or cream-colored. The fruits are capsules with flat seeds. After the seeds mature, the aboveground parts of the mother plant die off, and daughter offsets grow from the rhizomes.
King Ferdinand agave is a stunning, small, slow-growing agave up to 45 cm (17.7 in) in height and width. It forms an open rosette of stout triangular blue-green leaves with narrow longitudinal white bud imprints that typically form a triangular pattern. The leaf margins are dark reddish-brown, spineless, terminating at the obtuse apex with a thick spine of the same color. The inflorescence is spike-like, up to 4 m (13.1 ft) in height, with numerous paired flowers of variable color, often with purple-red hues.