Spikes and Towers in the Cypriot Sun
Stand on a rocky hillside in southern Cyprus at the end of a long, dry summer and you may suddenly notice a giant green starburst on the slope. Then, one day, a towering stalk shoots skyward like a living flagpole, topped with a candelabra of creamy-yellow flowers. This is the agave of Cyprus a dramatic New-World succulent that has quietly become one of the island’s most eye-catching landscape characters. www.inaturalist.org Meet the Agaves Agaves belong to the asparagus family (Asparagaceae), in the subfamily Agavoideae. These are tough, rosette-forming succulents perfectly built for arid life. The genus Agave contains around 200 species, nearly all native to the deserts and dry hills of Mexico, the southern United States and Central America. In Cyprus the two most common are Agave americana (the century plant or American aloe) and Agave sisalana (sisal agave). Gardeners also grow several other attractive species, including the graceful, almost spineless Agave attenuata (foxtail agave) with its soft, arching leaves and the compact, fiercely spiny Agave stricta. Locally they are known as Αγαύη (Agávi), a direct borrowing of the scientific name, which comes from the ancient Greek agauós “admirable” or “noble” a perfect description for their striking, architectural form. Some older Cypriots in Greek-speaking areas still call the spikiest ones Αλάς (Alás), perhaps a folk name evoking the sharp, sword-like…
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