Agave delamateri facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Agave delamateri |
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| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
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Agave
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| Species: |
delamateri
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The Agave delamateri is a special type of plant. It belongs to the agave family. People also call it the Tonto Basin agave or Rick's agave. This plant only grows in central Arizona in the United States. You can often find it in rocky desert areas. Sometimes, it grows near old Mogollon or Salado villages.
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Discovering the Tonto Basin Agave
The Tonto Basin agave is a unique plant. It is endemic to Arizona. This means it naturally grows only in that specific area. It prefers gravelly soils in desert scrubland. Sometimes, it can be found in pinyon-juniper woodland areas.
What Does the Agave Look Like?
The Agave delamateri is a plant without a main trunk. It forms a large, round shape called a rosette. This rosette can grow up to 100 centimeters (about 40 inches) wide. Its leaves are long, reaching up to 70 centimeters (about 28 inches).
The leaves have a waxy coating. This makes them look a pretty bluish-green color. They are also quite spiky! The leaves have sharp teeth along their edges. They also have a sharp point at the very tip. When the plant flowers, it sends up a tall stalk. This stalk can be as tall as 6 meters (about 20 feet). The flowers are creamy white with a hint of green.
Where Does This Agave Live?
This special agave is very rare. Only about 70 to 90 individual plants are known to exist. They are found in just three counties in Arizona: Gila, Maricopa, and Yavapai. Because there are so few, it's important to protect them.
How Does the Agave Grow?
The Agave delamateri has a unique way of growing. All the known plants are clones. This means they are exact copies of each other. They do not produce fertile seeds. Instead, new plants grow from "pups." These are small shoots that sprout from the base of the main plant.
Some of the oldest agave plants might be hundreds of years old. Even after all that time, the cloned plants are almost identical. Scientists think these plants might be descendants of agaves grown by ancient people. These people lived in the area long before Columbus arrived. They might have grown these plants for food or other uses.
