Restricted to the Cucapá and El Mayor Mountains of northern Baja California, this recently described species (Brittonia 63 (2), 2011, pp. 203 – 210) is thought to be most closely related to A. moranii (ISI 2019-11) and A. deserti var. simplex. Like those species, this is a desert dweller, accustomed to receiving most of its scant precipitation in winter. It tolerates intense desert heat, only occasionally relieved by a passing monsoonal system in summer. It apparently flowers facultatively in response to precipitation received in either winter or summer while its nearest relatives flower only in spring. Rosettes are solitary. Agave turneri is a narrow endemic of the hyperarid mountains S of Mexicali, in NE Baja California. According to its authors, A. turneri is considered “critically endangered owing to its habitat preference for specific types of granite in the Sierra Cucapá, threats due to prolonged drought and global change, and its close proximity to the Mexicali metropolitan area”. We offer seedlings, HBG 121179, from seed collected at the type locality by Bob Webb as part of the species description. $10.
Published in the Cactus and Succulent Journal, Vol. 96 (2), Summer 2024