The various forms of Agave parryi – part 8

Wim Alsemgeest en Jos van Roosbroeck.

Agave harvardiana by Fort Davis Texas, Pict.Vic Abel Gr.Br.

A closer look at:   A. harvardiana

This species is also described by Trelease in Rep. (Annual) Missouri Bot. Garden (1911 (publ. 1912)  22: 91). There are no good pictures of the plant  to see, only  illustrations of a leaf, dried flowers and dried fruit. The distribution is in the Guadalupe Mountains.  It grows there together with A. parryi subsp. neomexicana, but the majority of the  plants grow in the  Big Bend in the south of  Texas and in the  Chisos Mountains, close to the  Rio Grande river on the Mexican border.

There are natural hybrids of A. harvardia  with A.parryi ssp.  neomexicana. These natural hybrids are common in European collections, for example  in the Botanical Garden of Nice .On the web site of the   “Globetrotters”  you can see the so far as we know the most typical  A. havardiana, growing high in to the mountains. These are huge plants much larger than A. parryi subsp. neomexicana. Another nice picture was taken by Vic Abell  in Fort Davis Texas.

The Bic Bend in the Chisos Mountains South Texas

To be continued

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