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Agave wercklei (Costa Rican Agave) A medium size agave with a rosette to 2-3 feet tall by 6 feet in width with broad ovate glaucous gray leaves that blush red along longitudinal lines when the plant begins to flower, producing a dense panicle of bright yellow flowers on a 10 foot tall inflorescence. After flowering bulbils are produced in the spent flower axils.
Plant in full sun to light shade in a well-drained soil and irrigate infrequently to occasionally. Garden plants have sustained short duration temperatures down to the low 20s°'F but best for near frost free climates.
Our plants from the Huntington Botanic Garden's International Succulent Introduction program as Agave wercklei ISI 2018-5., which came to the Huntington from bulbils given to them by John Linesch of Culver City . These bulbils were removed from the inflorescence of a previous ISI distribution in 1984 (ISI 1447). All of these plants are the same clone as the Huntington Botanic Garden plant accessioned as HBG 19138 that was originally collected on May 7, 1965 by Howard Scott Gentry, author of Agaves of Continental North America, (as Agave sp. Gentry #20668) at 4,000 feet elevation along the Río Segundo, northwest of San Jose, Costa Rica. Gentry subsequently identified the plant as Agave wercklei in 1969.
The specific epithet honors the French-born botanist and horticulturalist Carlos (Karl) Werclé, (1860-1924), who lived in the U.S. before moving to Costa Rica to continue his horticultural work in 1902. Wercklé, reported this plant "as native to the region of the Río Grande on the Pacific slope of Costa Rica, where it grew in hot country in sparse grassland, also home of the tropical giant Ceiba trees and vanilla orchids." Move information can be found about this plant on the Huntington Botanic Garden's webpage at ISI 2018-5. Agave wercklei F. A. C. Weber. The photo on this page courtesy of the Huntington Botanic Gardens.
This information about Agave wercklei displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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