Agavaceae
Agave Family
The Agavaceae family (Agave Family) is a botanical family placed in the order Asparagales. In the SASYA catalogue it spans 12 species across 5 genera. Its members are predominantly shrubs. Well-represented genera include Agave, Dracaena and Sansevieria. Several members are valued in traditional medicine and grown in cultivation. Familiar examples include Century Plant, Caribbean Agave and Sisal Hemp.
Browse all 12 species ↓
Thick, fibrous, often spine-tipped rosette leaves on succulent-adjacent herbs and shrubs; tall flowering stalks, sometimes many metres high and produced only once in the plant's life, bear numerous tubular, six-parted flowers.
Many species flower only once after years or decades of vegetative growth, then die (monocarpy) — the towering agave flower spike is a once-in-a-lifetime event for the plant.
Which Agavaceae species is this?
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Typical leaf characters
- ArrangementVariable
- TypeVariable
- MarginVariable
VenationParallel
Characters typical of the family — individual species can vary.
Notable members
All 12 species in AGAVACEAE
- Century Plant, American AloeAgave americana
- Caribbean AgaveAgave angustifolia
- Sisal Hemp, Hemp PlantAgave sisalana
- Cornstalk DracaenaDracaena fragrans
- Wild DracaenaDracaena terniflora
- Snake Plant, Mother-In-Law's TongueDracaena trifasciata
- Giant Cabuya, Mauritius Hemp, Green AloeFurcraea foetida
- Indian Bowstring HempSansevieria roxburghiana
- Snake Plant, Mother-In-Law's TongueSansevieria trifasciata
- Adam's NeedleYucca aloifolia
- Agave cantula
- Sansevieria hyacinthoides
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