ISI 2013-8. Agave zebra ‘Superspiny’ Out of Stock

This plant came to us as part of the Seymour Linden collection without a name on the label except ‘Superspiny’. Fortunately, there was another label with the name Dimmitt. Our friend Mark Dimmitt, former Curator of Botany at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum (ASDM) was able to identify it as a form he named of this slow-growing species and supplied collection data. In a testament to the value of sharing material to conserve it, he was pleased to hear that we had the plant since a javelina ate the entire plant in his Tucson garden. We offer plants from tissue culture of HBG 100268 that already exhibit fierce spination, boldly colored at first, and with attractive bud imprinting. These imprints persist into maturity while the spines become gray with age. The plant was originally collected by Dimmitt and George Montgomery (Mark’s successor at ASDM) as an offset from a colony selected for its compact rosettes and very large teeth, Mar 8, 1983, ca. 1 km SW of Mina Santa Cruz, SE of Caborca, in the N end of the Sierra del Viejo, Sonora, Mexico. Dimmitt reports that it is hardy to 11° F, the minimum experienced in his garden. $10.

Photo © 2013 by Karen Zimmerman. Images may not be used elsewhere without permission.

Published in the Cactus and Succulent Journal, Vol. 85 (2), March - April, 2013