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Agave parrasana is a slow-growing evergreen succulent from northeast Mexico, forming a compact rosette of thorn-tipped grey-green leaves. It needs sharp drainage and plenty of sun, and it dies after its single large flowering stalk, though offsets usually carry on.
Agave parrasana, the cabbage head agave or cabbage head century plant, is a flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae. A slow-growing evergreen succulent from North East Mexico, it produces a compact rosette of fleshy thorn-tipped grey-green leaves, 60 cm (24 in) tall and wide. The leaves are blue green and the thorns are red. The whole plant may reach 100 cm (39 in) tall and wide. Occasionally, mature plants produce a spectacular flower head up to 6 m (20 ft) tall, opening red and turning yellow. This signals the death of the flowering rosette. However, offsets may form and continue growing.
As it can tolerate temperatures of −12 °C (10 °F) or less, it is a popular plant to grow outdoors in a sheltered cactus garden or similar environment, and has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. In the US, it may be grown outdoors in USDA hardiness zones 7–10.
American century plant · Century plant · Fox Tail Agave · Cow's Horn Agave · Agave colorata · Thread Agave · Henequen · Agave guadalajarana · Black Spined Agave · Agave maculata · Murphey's century plant · Palmer's century plant
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Agave parrasana by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
