agave

Noun
  1. Tropical American plants with basal rosettes of fibrous sword-shaped leaves and flowers in tall spikes;
    Some cultivated for ornament or for fiber (synset 112497015)
    is a type of: desert plant, xerophile, xerophilous plant, xerophyte, xerophytic plant - plant adapted for life with a limited supply of water; compare hydrophyte and mesophyte
    subtypes:
    • agave americana, american agave - widely cultivated American monocarpic plant with greenish-white flowers on a tall stalk; blooms only after ten to twenty years and then dies
    • agave sisalana, sisal - Mexican or West Indian plant with large fleshy leaves yielding a stiff fiber used in e.g. rope
    • agave cantala, cantala, maguey - Philippine plant yielding a hard fibre used in making coarse twine
    • agave atrovirens, maguey - Mexican plant used especially for making pulque which is the source of the colorless Mexican liquor, mescal
    • agave tequilana - Mexican plant used especially for making tequila
    • dracaena - an agave that is often cultivated for its decorative foliage
    • bear grass, nolina microcarpa - stemless plant with tufts of grasslike leaves and erect panicle of minute creamy white flowers; southwestern United States and Mexico
    • bowstring hemp, sansevieria - grown as a houseplant for its mottled fleshy sword-shaped leaves or as a source of fiber
    belongs to: agavaceae, agave family, family agavaceae, sisal family - chiefly tropical and xerophytic plants: includes Dracenaceae (Dracaenaceae); comprises plants that in some classifications are divided between the Amaryllidaceae and the Liliaceae
    same as: american aloe, century plant

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