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Family: Agavaceae
Mckelvey agave, more, McKelvey's century plant
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Plant: Perennial scapose herb; -Rosettes 20-45 cm tall, single or caespitose, open
Leaves: few, 17.5-40 cm long, 2.8-5 cm wide, linear or lanceolate, broadest in the middle, acuminate, convex towards apex, thickish and deeply concave towards base, rigid, firm, spreading to ascending, light glaucous green, yellow-green to dark green, usually with light cross-zoned patterns; margins nearly straight or undulate; teeth mostly 4-8 mm long at mid-blade, flexed upward or downward, mostly 1-3 cm apart, grayish with red-brown tips, sometimes with brown ring at base; interstitial teeth absent; terminal spine 1.5-4 cm long, subulate, with shallow open groove at base, decurrent to first or second teeth, gray
Inflorescence: narrowly paniculate, with scape 2-5 m tall, of 10-19 lateral ascending branchlets in upper ½ of flowering stalk, the stalk slender, green
Flowers: in small congested clusters, 30-40 mm long; tepals spreading, soon wilting after anthesis, equal to subequal, 11-13 mm long, 2.5-4 mm wide, linear conduplicate, abruptly hooded at tips, yellow; filaments 25-30 mm long, inserted near or at top of tube, light yellow, the anthers (7-)9-16 mm long, yellow; ovary 16-22 mm long, stoutish, with constricted neck 2-2.5 mm long, light green to green, the style 25-38 mm long when stigma is receptive; floral tube shallow, open, 2-4.5 mm long, 8-10 mm broad, light green to light yellow
Fruit: a loculicidal capsule, CAPSULES linear to oblong, 30-45 mm long, 10-14 mm wide, stipitate, obtuse to apiculate, striate; SEEDS black, 5-6.5 mm long, 4-4.5 mm broad
Misc: Open rocky slopes in upper desert scrub, chaparral and juniper woodland; 850-2200 m (2800-7200 ft); May-Jul
REFERENCES: Hodgson, Wendy. 1999. Agavaceae. Ariz. – Nev. Acad. Sci. 32(1).
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