Agave angustifolia Haw.
Caribbean Agave, Century Plant, mescal agave, mescal de maguey
Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.
Summary
Agave angustifolia is a species of agave plant which is native to Mexico and Central America. It is used to make mezcal and also as an ornamental plant. The cultivar 'Marginata' that white margins on the leaves is a popular variety cultivated in botanical gardens and backyards. It is very closely related to blue agave Agave tequilana, but is used to make the distilled alcoholic beverage mezcal instead of tequila, and is the predominant agave species grown in the Mexican state of Oaxaca.
Text from Wikipedia, “Agave angustifolia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Agave
Agave is a genus of monocots native to the arid regions of the Americas. The genus is primarily known for its succulent and xerophytic species that typically form large rosettes of strong, fleshy leaves.
Text from Wikipedia, “Agave”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Cultivation
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Agave, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.
Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (679 mm of 916 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.0 °C against a yearly mean of 23.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.
Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain Habitat rain 916 mm a year, wettest August at 175 mm, driest March at 9 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
916 mm a year at the habitat, 679 mm of it June to September. Wettest month August at 175 mm, driest March at 9 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 533 mm to 1532 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 47 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 47 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).
CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Warmth and air Cold floor 9.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 9.7 °C, the absolute minimum 6.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 14.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells 7.3 °C to 21.2 °C), warmest day 31.3 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 9.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).
NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 53 to 65% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.
The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.
Climate across the habitat
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 25 / 21–29 | 27 / 23–31 | 29 / 24–33 | 30 / 26–35 | 31 / 27–35 | 30 / 25–35 | 29 / 24–34 | 29 / 24–34 | 29 / 23–33 | 28 / 23–31 | 27 / 23–30 | 26 / 21–29 |
| Night °C | 14 / 7–21 | 14 / 8–22 | 16 / 9–22 | 18 / 11–24 | 20 / 14–25 | 22 / 15–25 | 22 / 14–26 | 22 / 14–26 | 21 / 14–26 | 19 / 12–24 | 17 / 10–23 | 15 / 8–22 |
| Rain mm | 24 / 5–46 | 13 / 6–34 | 9 / 3–34 | 15 / 2–47 | 51 / 2–119 | 158 / 23–259 | 172 / 101–275 | 175 / 102–266 | 174 / 95–296 | 82 / 35–188 | 24 / 10–71 | 19 / 5–49 |
| DLI | 30 / 25–35 | 36 / 30–39 | 42 / 36–45 | 47 / 40–48 | 45 / 40–51 | 39 / 35–48 | 39 / 34–43 | 38 / 33–42 | 34 / 30–37 | 33 / 30–36 | 30 / 26–34 | 28 / 24–33 |
| RH % | 56 / 48–62 | 55 / 47–61 | 54 / 44–60 | 53 / 43–61 | 56 / 46–63 | 61 / 53–67 | 63 / 57–67 | 63 / 58–68 | 65 / 59–69 | 62 / 54–67 | 58 / 50–65 | 57 / 49–63 |
Each figure is the median across the 738 grid cells holding the 1045 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1426:1610 (18.675, -99.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 6.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 9.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 738 distinct grid cells holding the 1045 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1426:1610 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 18.50_-99.375, lapse-corrected -222 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1134 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Juan Carlos A. Fierro, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Sue Carnahan, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).
Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.
Papers naming this species
Works whose title or abstract names Agave angustifolia, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.
Zinnia elegans Common zinnia
Arachnothryx leucophylla Panama rose
Pseudobombax ellipticum Shaving Brush Tree
Dorstenia drakena Moraceae
Tillandsia ionantha Blushing Bride
Opuntia cochenillifera cochineal cactusOther Agave 252 in the reference
Agave abisaii Asparagaceae
Agave acicularis Asparagaceae
Agave acklinicola Acklin Island Agave
Agave acuispina Asparagaceae
Agave aktites Asparagaceae
Agave albescens Guantanamo Bay Agave
Agave albomarginata Asparagaceae
Agave albopilosa Asparagaceae
Agave americana American agave
Agave amica Asparagaceae
Agave andreae Asparagaceae
Agave angustiarum Asparagaceae all 253 ›History & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)wcvp.distribution answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 93 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.