Species
+

Agave vivipara L.

Cuco di Indjan, Kuki di Indjan, Tekla

Climate known 92 photographs Cactus or succulent
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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.

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Aruba, Netherlands Antilles
Wild records
5 in range· 1 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Sep, mean day; nights 27 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
663mm/yr
10 wet months · peak Nov 137 mm (CHELSA)
Light
32–42DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Agave, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, August to January at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.2 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 663 mm a year, wettest November at 137 mm, driest March at 14 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 32 to 42 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 24.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Agave bulbifera Salm-Dyck; Agave candelabrum Tod.; Agave cantala (Haw.) Roxb. ex Salm-Dyck; Agave cantala Roxb.; Agave cantula Roxb. and 9 more.

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 sharp rainy season, August to January at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.2 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (495 mm of 663 mm) falls in August to January. The temperature curve is flat, 2.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

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 663 mm a year, wettest November at 137 mm, driest March at 14 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

663 mm a year at the habitat, 495 mm of it August to January. Wettest month November at 137 mm, driest March at 14 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 580 mm to 691 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: 32 to 42 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 32 to 42 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 31, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

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 24.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 24.7 °C, the absolute minimum 23.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 24.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells 24.8 °C to 24.9 °C), warmest day 28.0 °C in September (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 24.7 °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.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 64 to 67% 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

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 26 °C in Feb to 28 °C in Sep; mean night from 25 °C in Jan to 27 °C in Sep. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 663 mm of rain a year, most in Nov. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 5 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 23.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 29.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.20°25°30°35°29.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)23.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 32–42RH 64–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 5 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C26 / 26–2626 / 26–2626 / 26–2626 / 26–2627 / 27–2727 / 27–2727 / 27–2728 / 28–2828 / 28–2828 / 28–2827 / 27–2727 / 26–27
Night °C25 / 25–2525 / 25–2525 / 25–2526 / 26–2626 / 26–2626 / 26–2626 / 26–2626 / 26–2727 / 27–2726 / 26–2626 / 26–2625 / 25–25
Rain mm52 / 45–5434 / 26–3514 / 13–1630 / 24–3123 / 21–2527 / 24–3040 / 35–4346 / 34–4855 / 52–56100 / 87–103137 / 111–142105 / 97–111
DLI34 / 34–3437 / 37–3841 / 41–4241 / 41–4140 / 40–4141 / 41–4141 / 41–4242 / 41–4240 / 40–4035 / 35–3532 / 32–3232 / 31–32
RH %64 / 64–6664 / 63–6665 / 64–6666 / 65–6867 / 66–6866 / 65–6866 / 65–6866 / 65–6866 / 65–6766 / 65–6866 / 65–6865 / 64–67

Each figure is the median across the 5 grid cells holding the 5 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 1556:2220 (12.175, -68.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 23.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 24.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.8 °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 5 distinct grid cells holding the 5 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1556:2220 (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 12.00_-68.750, lapse-corrected +29 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 31 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAruba, Netherlands Antilles· introduced: Canary Is., Assam, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan
Kew's description“succulent perennial” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker12.182, -68.983 · in the densest population, 5 records (100% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 5 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 1 openly licensed one, which alone would put the marker 16 km away. 366 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. Under a dozen records: treat the map and the climate as indicative.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 5 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Agave viviparaAgave viviparaAgave viviparaAgave viviparaAgave viviparaAgave viviparaAgave viviparaAgave vivipara

Photographs: (c) Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY) (7); (c) Sebastián de Jesús Herrera Buenfil, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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 vivipara, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Ornamental Plants as Invasive Aliens: Problems and Solutions in Kruger National Park, South Africa
Llewellyn C. Foxcroft, David M. Richardson, John R. Wilson (2007) · Environmental Management
Ixcatec ethnoecology: plant management and biocultural heritage in Oaxaca, Mexico
Selene Rangel-Landa, Alejandro Casas, Erandi Rivera-Lozoya, Ignacio Torres-García (2016) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Karyotype Alteration and Phylogeny. IV
Dyûhei Satô (1938) · CYTOLOGIA
Indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants used by ethnic communities of South India
JU Santosh Kumar, M Krishna Chaitanya, Andrew Semotiuk, V. Krishna (2019) · Ethnobotany Research and Applications
Sociocultural and ecological factors influencing management of edible and non-edible plants: the case of Ixcatlán, Mexico
Selene Rangel-Landa, Alejandro Casas, Eduardo Garcı́a-Frapolli, Rafael Lira (2017) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Ellenberg’s Indicator values for the Flora of Italy – first update: Pteridophyta, Gymnospermae and Monocotyledoneae
Riccardo Guarino, Gianniantonio Domina, Sandro Pignatti (2012) · Flora Mediterranea
Alien species in South Africa’s national parks
Dian Spear, Mélodie A. McGeoch, Llewellyn C. Foxcroft, Hugo Bezuidenhout (2011) · Koedoe
A Crop Wild Relative Inventory for Mexico
Aremi R. Contreras‐Toledo, Moises Cortés-Cruz, Denise E. Costich, María de Lourdes Rico‐Arce (2018) · Crop Science
INDUSTRIA DEL BACANORA Y SU PROCESO DE ELABORACIÓN BACANORA INDUSTRY AND ITS PROCESS OF PRODUCTION
María Gutiérrez-Coronado, Evelia Acedo‐Félix, Ana Isabel Valenzuela-Quintanar (2007) · Ciencia y Tecnologia Alimentaria
The confusion of Agave vivipara L. and A. angustifolia Haw., two distinct taxa
Abisa Garca-Mendoza, Fernando Chiang (2003) · Brittonia
A synopsis of feral Agave and Furcraea (Agavaceae, Asparagaceae s. lat.) in the Canary Islands (Spain)
Filip Verloove, Joachim Thiede, Águedo Marrero Rodríguez, Marcos Salas Pascual (2019) · Plant Ecology and Evolution
Nocturnal versus diurnal CO2 uptake: how flexible is Agave angustifolia?
Klaus Winter, Milton Garcia, Joseph A. M. Holtum (2014) · Journal of Experimental Botany

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.

Other Agave 252 in the reference

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 answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata 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: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.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 answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 31 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.