Agave

[Sarah]

A genus of plants (order Amaryllidaceæ) of which the chiefspecies is the maguey or century plant (A. Americana), wrongly calledAloe. It is from ten to seventy years, according to climate, inattaining maturity, when it produces a gigantic flower stem,sometimes forty feet in height, and perishes. The fermented juice isthe pulque of the Mexicans; distilled, it yields mescal. A strongthread and a tough paper are made from the leaves, and the wood hasmany uses.

[Sarah]

Chiefly Mexican, agaves also occur in the southern and western United States and in central and tropical South America. The plants have a large rosette of thick fleshy leaves, each ending generally in a sharp point and with a spiny margin; the stout stem is usually short, the leaves apparently springing from the root. Along with plants from the related genus Yucca, various Agave species are popular ornamental plants. Agave sap is what is distilled into the liquors [tequila] and [mescal].