ISI 2022-13. Agave pablocarilloi ‘Ivory Curls’

In Systematic Botany in 2013 (38 (2): pp. 320 -331), A. Vásquez et al. revised the Marmoratae group of Agave. This resulted in several taxonomic clarifications and four new species descriptions. Among the former was a narrower circumscription of Agave gypsophila. This name now applies just to greener, solitary plants from limestone outcrops of the Morelos Formation in Guerrero, at 600 – 900 m elevation. Among the new species described is one that has been widely cultivated as A. gypsophila but is now segregated as A. pablocarilloi A. Vélazquez, Muñiz & Padilla-Lepe, named for Pablo Carillo-Reyes, “a promising botanist and outstanding explorer of the succulent flora of western Mexico”. This is restricted to the state of Colima, on limestone outcrops of the Madrid Formation, at 300 – 610 m elevation. It is much admired for its modest-sized, offsetting rosettes (2’ or less diameter), attractive glaucous leaves with undulating margins, and slender peduncles bearing showy, orange flowers. Therefore, the variegated form that has been circulating as A. gypsophila ‘Ivory Curls’ is now A. pablocarilloi ‘Ivory Curls’. In nature, the species is apparently not bulbiliferous. Fortunately, that is not the case with plants in cultivation, making this offering possible. We offer rooted bulbils of HBG 131861, a plant from the Whitelock collection of companion plants grown in his cycad garden. $10.