Cedros Island Agave

Cedros Island Agave

This 2021 garden addition is planted in specimen beds nearest the solar fields. A medium agave, it grows up to 3 feet wide with pale green to gray leaves that curve cup-like towards the center. Curved teeth also line the black leaf margin and end in a long, black terminal spine.

These plants originate in the more temperate climates of the islands west of Baja, California, on West San Benito, Natividad and their namesake, Cedros Islands. They are also being cultivated from tissue cultures.

Ocahui Agave

Ocahui Agave

This hardy agave, which can stand temperatures down to 15°F, is in the specimen beds nearest the solar field. It can tolerate shade but prefers sun. With rosettes of straight narrow toothless leaves, growing 2 to 3 feet tall, it resembles a yucca. Like the yucca, it has been harvested for its leaf fibers, which gives it its name meaning fiber or cord.

It will grow an 8-foot tall stalk at its end of life with yellow blooms. Unlike other agaves, it does not form clones or offsets.

Native to Sonora, Mexico, this agave seems to prefer rocky slopes at an elevation between 1,500 and 4,500 feet.

Agave ‘Black and Blue’

Agave ‘Black and Blue’

This new variety has replaced the original Gentry’s Agave (Agave titanota) in the south-west corner of section 1 on the map. Smaller than the original Gentry’s Agave, this one can have blue-gray to green leaves and black teeth along its leaf margins.

It can grow to a height of 2 feet and spread up to 3 feet, and will produce clones, creating tightly packed colonies.

This titanota variety originated in Oaxaca, Mexico, and was grown by seed, but is now also being propagated in labs through tissue culturing. It’s not certain whether this plant qualifies as a cultivar or hybrid as several varieties of A. titanota are now being described as a new species of their own.

Pygmaea Agave

Pygmaea Agave

Added to the gardens in 2021, Pygmaea Agave is a new dwarf variety. It is dark green with flat leaves rarely exceeding 12 inches (30 cm) in length. It can be found in the far north specimen beds near the solar field.

Pygmaea prefers a limestone habitat. Its origins are in Mexico, Chiapas, and north of the Mexico-Guatemala border.

A slow grower, it does well in heat but is frost tender.

You may find it under the botanical name of Agave Pygmaea Gentry or Agave seemanniana subsp. Pygmaea, which is how it is listed on this site.

Crested Blue Flame

Crested Blue Flame

Crested Blue Flame is in the north specimen bed nearest the Café and Solar Field. It’s easily identified by its shape, which is a series of heavily folded skin. It makes it eye-catching. This feature has resulted in a variety of common names including Dinosaur Back, as well as “Crested” followed by multiple descriptive names. All an attempt to capture this unique growth pattern.

The pattern could best described as clustering, since it grows a trunk-like center crest, and then sends up additional stems that will grow around each other, thus forming a cluster. It makes an interesting addition to any garden space as quite an attractive curiosity.

At Sunnylands, it elicits questions from visitors, including “What’s wrong with that cactus?” For those used to more recognizable patterns of barrel, columnar, and pad producing cactus, this one is a surprise.

It’s also a growth pattern we see in other ecosystems, like the coral reefs. The corals are colonies of organisms that act as one, but the cactus creates this visual effect as a single organism.

The blooms are small with radiating petals and greenish-white in color.

Fire Barrel, Mexican Lime

Fire Barrel, Mexican Lime

This vibrantly colored cactus can grow solitary or in groups with spines that range from yellow to bright red and may even be combined on one plant. The spines have distinct banding and a slight curve. In the gardens they can be found in the specimen beds at the shuttle gate and nearest the solar field.

Flowers are a bright yellow and red-orange blend, which are followed by yellow fruit at the crown.

Their distribution is throughout Northern Central Mexico in San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas, Durango, Nuevo León, Coahuila, and Tamaulipas.

Beaked Yucca

Beaked Yucca

Beaked Yucca is most obvious in the wildflower field. Entering from the path that starts in the middle of the parking lot and taking the route to the left, it lies immediately ahead on the left side of the path. When it was originally planted at ground level, it appeared like rigid bunch grass. In recent seasons, it began to be more obvious as a trunking species that will rise up between 6 and 15 feet. As each new row of leaves dies, it falls downward to create a skirt effect on the trunk. It can grow single or multi-headed branches. Its leaves are mostly rigid and may or may not have a slight curve.

Rostrata, like other yuccas, is truly in its glory when it blooms. Its large candelabras of pure white blooms signals that it is another species attractive to nocturnal pollinators, which is common in the desert. The main pollinator of yuccas is the Yucca Moth. They have a special symbiotic relationship with this genus and, although other pollinators may visit, the Yucca Moth is the real partner. The plant’s fruit is shaped with a point like a beak, which is why it is nicknamed Beaked Yucca.

The distribution of Beaked Yucca is in the states of Chihuahua and Coahuila in northern Mexico, and western Texas in the United States.

Golden Barrel

Golden Barrel

The Golden Barrel cactus forms dense wooly caps, from which it can grow crowns of yellow, cup-shaped blooms in spring and summer. These cactuses, like agaves and many other succulents, also produce clones and can create a colony of barrels all stemming from one parental plant.

At Sunnylands, this showstopper is planted in the scoria-mulched beds under the Palo Breas, adjacent the Center. Planted alone in rows, it draws visitors with cameras trying to capture unique views that emerge below the Palo Brea trees. In other parts of the gardens, it shares the spotlight with the San Pedro cactus.

Mary Irish, horticultural consultant on the project, describes these spotlights: “San Pedro cactus and Golden Barrel cactus are set like twin jewels on the dark base. This dramatic presentation is one of the artistic gems visitors find while wandering through the gardens.”

At sunset, the bright green flesh and yellow spines create a glowing effect that looks as if they radiate light.

This cactus, included on the Convention for International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) list, is endangered in the wild. Transport across international lines is restricted as the demand for certain desirable species often results in their depletion at their home of origin, as they are poached and transported to private collections around the world. Now heavily commercially cultivated, they are more available, but as the plants grow to larger sizes, their price point increases, leaving older, wild specimens in danger of being poached.

 

Spineless Prickly Pear

Spineless Prickly Pear

The Spineless Prickly Pear, known as Ellisiana, is a cultivar of the Opuntia cacanapa. A popular, cold-hardy variety, it can be found in the specimen beds between the café and the solar field. It boasts high heat tolerance and cold tolerance to zero degrees, making it a desirable choice for deserts with wide temperature ranges. It has a spreading nature, so it can fill in larger spaces.

It blooms in summer with bright yellow flowers followed by dark red edible fruit.

It originates from species in southern Texas and Mexico.

Prickly Pear

Prickly Pear

Planted in the specimen beds between the café and the solar field, Prickly Pear is one of the earliest Opuntias recorded by traveling European botanists, listed by Ferdinand Lindheimer in 1768. Prickly Pear is one of the most known names in popular culture for Opuntias, becoming a generalized name applied to all padded cactus. Prickly Pear can grow low, creating a shrubby appearance, or may ascend on a single, tree-like stalk. Spines (leaves) may be absent or irregular in growth.

Its cup-shaped flowers bloom yellow to red and are followed by green, orange, or red fruit.

A highly cultivated species, its origins are not confirmed, though it is likely native to Mexico. There has been significant collection transport of this species, as well as cultivation. It is now naturalized in South Africa, Australia, and the Mediterranean.

 

 

Old Mexico

Old Mexico

Old Mexico is one of the Opuntia in the specimen beds between the café and solar field. It has bright green pads (stems) with vivid yellow spines (leaves) and it makes a wonderful accent plant in gardens. The spines will stand straight and may be accompanied by glochids, which are small barbed spines that appear like fur. The plant needs plenty of room to grow as it branches wide, sprouting new pads to create a large shrub appearance.

Old Mexico is sometimes classified as lindheimeri (Britton and Rose) and has some of its characteristics, but it is distinct on its own, and intermediates have not been identified.

Blooms are bright yellow and funnel-shaped. Fruit is dark purple, and like other Opuntias, this plant is a food plant.

It is common near the Rio Grande delta and some inland areas of southern Texas.

 

Engelmann’s Prickly Pear

Engelmann’s Prickly Pear

This is one of several Opuntia in the specimen beds between the café and solar field. A sprawling, shrubby Opuntia, it will grow in many directions. It doesn’t usually form stems, instead pads spread from the base. Its pads can grow up to a foot long, and its spines (leaves) can be quite variable and, on some plants, completely absent. It has hybridized into many varieties that occur in different regions as a result of human selection, use, and its tendency to replant easily in disturbed areas.

Its bloom is yellow to reddish in color, and many parts of the plant are used for food and medicine.

Its distribution is widely spread through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, and in San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, and Hidalgo, in northern and central Mexico.