This distinctive agave is native to Cerro Guiengola, a limestone mountain in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. It grows on sheer cliff-faces in prodigious numbers, resembling dense colonies of sea-stars. There is some variation in leaf size and color. Predictably, an offsetting clone that lends itself to propagation has become the most widely distributed form in cultivation and, as it happens, it has light green foliage. The clone offered here has been solitary for most of its life in the Huntington’s Desert Garden and is striking for its massive, ghostly-pale, glaucous leaves. It is also a historically and scientifically significant collection because it was made by Howard Gentry and contributed to his description of the species. Only in recent years have a few offsets been produced, allowing us to propagate it by tissue-culture. Rooted offsets of HBG 19139, collected by H. S. Gentry, Sept 29, 1965, on Cerro Guiengola, about 20 km NW of the coastal city of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Mexico. $10.
Published in the Cactus and Succulent Journal, Vol. 83 (2), March - April, 2011