Agave obscura

Agave obscura is a medium-sized agave of rocky sites in eastern Mexico. The epithet means 'obscure', referring not to rarity but to its flowers, which are dull reddish rather than the bright yellow of many agaves. According to a plant encyclopedia, the rosette spreads to about 1 m across and sometimes offsets. The leaves are 25-40 cm long and 5-8 cm wide, ranging from linear to ovate, stiff, and pale green to green. Grey teeth 3-15 mm long sit 1-3 cm apart along the margins, often bent downward, and the grey tip spine is 3-5 cm. The flower stalk is 3-5 m, densely flowered in its upper quarter, with flowers dark purple, red or yellow. A US botanic garden has distributed plants grown from seed collected in San Luis Potosí. The name has often been misapplied, and many plants cultivated as A. obscura are in fact A. horrida subsp. perotensis, which is easily told apart by its dark green leaves with prominent white teeth. In Japan specialist nurseries sell plants, though not in large numbers.

The Agave obscura grows to Rosette about 1 m across; leaves 25-40 cm long.

Light feeder; a little slow-release fertiliser in the growing season is enough