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| Category: Succulent |
| Family: Agavaceae (Agaves) |
| Origin: Southwest (U.S.) (North America) |
| Evergreen: Yes |
| Flower Color: Green Yellow |
| Bloomtime: Infrequent |
| Height: 2-3 feet |
| Width: 3-4 feet |
| Exposure: Full Sun |
| Drought Tolerant: Yes |
| Irrigation (H2O Info): Low Water Needs |
| Winter Hardiness: < 0 °F |
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Agave havardiana (Havard's Century Plant) An attractive midsized Agave to 2 to 3 feet tall by 3 to 4 feet wide with a tight rosette bearing stout short broad silver gray to nearly white leaves with dark brown mariginal and terminal spines. It is usually solitary but occasionally older plants can produced offsets. When mature the plant flowers in summer to fall with yellow-green flowers held on a tall branched spike. Plant in full sun with little to no supplemental irrigation required. Hardy to –20° F. We received the seed for this plant from Brian Kemble off of a plant that flowered at the Ruth Bancroft Garden in 2009, a plant we first noticed and admired on a visit to this garden in 2004. At that time it was labeled as being a wide leafed form of Agave desertii, a plant native to our own Southwestern deserts. While its nativity certainly made this plant more interesting, it was its beautiful broad heavy pale leaves, so different from all other Agave desertii, that attracted our attention. With this plants susequent maturity and finally its flowerering, it was determined that it was actually a very nice form of the Agave havardiana, a plant from the grasslands in west Texas and northern Mexico, at elevations from 4,000 to 6,000 feet. It was originally described under this name by William Trelease in 1912, who named the plant to honor Valery Harvard, who had previously identified it as Agave wizlizeni in the Guadalupe Mountains 1881 and in the Chisos Mountains in 1883. Havard was a French born imigrant to the US and was a army officer, physician , author, and botanist. While serving as a army doctor in Texas he was able to explore new territories and discover new plants. It also is called by the common name Chisos Agave as it grows in this mountain range located in the Big Bend National Park as well as in the Davis Mountains just to the north. The pictures on our website were taken of this plant at the Ruth Bancroft Garden.
The description above is based on our research and observations of this plant growing in our nursery, in our own garden and in other gardens in the Santa Barbara area. We would appreciate hearing from anyone who has additional information about this plant, even if they disagree with what we have written.
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