Re: Agave striata vs. Agave stricta
Keith:
I think that you will find any offsets you generate won't require anywhere near 35 years to reflower, so not a total loss.
Paul: I have not heard flower color as key character (if so, a very unreliable one), but rather the size and ratios of corolla parts as being the most consistent variants. The confusion in plant ID seems far more prevalent in the UK than on our side of the pond. Perhaps it is because more plants here have origin data definitively linking them to the various populations and the corresponding epithets?
Again, in cultivation at least, I find that A. stricta generally has a much larger diameter at flowering, is more frondose and has a markedly more globular form when grown root free and hard. Also, IME, stricta offsets at and after flowering in the middle and upper parts of the rosettes from between the leaf bases, while striata commonly begins to offset basally years prior to flowering.
There is a very interesting study of the different striata populations published last year by a group of Mexican researchers. See summary:
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... vironmentsI have read this paper a few times and came away with the distinct impression that the authors were teetering on the verge of segregating/elevating var. falcata back to full species status but were reluctant to do so based on current understanding of the genetics of these populations.
I don't have pictures of my green Tehuacan plants in Guatemala, but have attached a few from my old collection in Guatemala, my new garden collection in California and the Phoenix DBG that may prove interesting since two of the plants shown have good locality data and the DBG plant is - well - a wild accession ID'd by their staff.
Agave stricta, young red form grown in Guatemala from wild-collected offset, Tehuacan Valley, Puebla, Guy Wrinkle, GW Rare Exotic Plants
Agave stricta, young green form grown in Arizona-northern California, group of large cultivated offsets being re-established prior to planting out, "Puebla-Oaxaca", Bob Webb, Arid Lands Greenhouses
Agave striata var. falcata, young green form grown in northern California from wild-collected seed, offsetting from base, upper Huasteca Canyon, Nuevo Leon, anon.
Agave striata var. falcata, mature green form, flowering clump, wild accession, Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, AZ
Cheers,
J