The agave plant grows in tropical and subtropical dry areas, especially in the Caribbean and Mexico. The name means magnificent or excellent and that's exactly what the plant is - especially when it's in flower. The agave is a perennial herbaceous plant that has a short above-ground stem. The leaves of the agave are grouped in dense rosettes, in which the individual leaves are very fleshy, leathery, pointed and fibrous. The leaves contain a lot of reinforcing tissue so that they do not collapse under drought conditions.
Flowering of the agave plant takes many years, but when it flowers it will form a 2-8 metre tall inflorescence with many side branches and white or yellow flowers in a few weeks.
