Agave impressa

Agave impressaAgave impressa grows in tropical regions where the summers are hot and wet and winters are mild and dry. It is a distinctive small to medium sized Agave with no close relatives. The symmetrical rosettes with spreading light green, gracefully marked with distinct pairs of white imprints that converge near the leaf tip. The leaves are proportioned with blunt teeth and spines. This species is quite unlike any other plant in the genus. The 2 to 3 meters

Agave impressa grows in tropical regions where the summers are hot and wet and winters are mild and dry. It is a distinctive small to medium sized Agave with no close relatives. The symmetrical rosettes with spreading light green, gracefully marked with distinct pairs of white imprints that converge near the leaf tip. The leaves are proportioned with blunt teeth and spines. This species is quite unlike any other plant in the genus. The 2 to 3 meters tall flower spike is un branched with greenish yellow flowers from tip to near base. It may be related to Agave pedunculifera.

Flowers: Green in bud, yellow with anthers, 35-40 mm long, in twos and threes on slender forked pedicels 2-2.5 cm long. Ovary slender, 17-20 mm long, 4 mm in diameter, fusiform. Tube short, 1.5-2 mm deep, 7 mm wide at apex. Tepals equal, thin, 17-18 long, 4-5 mm wide, ascending, partially recurved, linear-elliptic, the outer flat, the inner wider. Filaments, very slender, flattened, 35-40 mm long white;15-16 mm long, yellow.
Blooming season: Late-winter early-spring (January to March).
Fruits (capsules): Elongated to ovoid 15-18 long, 8-10 mm thick, sharply beaked.
Remarks: It is named for the impressed or printed patterns of spiny leaf-margins formed by waxy deposits when juvenile leaves are in contact with each other.

Some of the information in this description has been found at desert-tropicals.com, llifle.com and cactus-art.biz