Furcraea species                                                                              Liliaceae (Lily Family)     Western Hemisphere   Furcraea

                                    October Photo

Plant Characteristics:  Stemless or stem to 1 m.; lvs. 36-40, to 295 x 12 cm., narrowing to 7-8 cm. at base, rigid, bright green, margins entire or rarely armed with sparse hooked spines, outer lvs. reflexed; infl. to 7.5 m., branches with many adventitious bulblets; fls. paniculate, strongly scented, 4 cm. across, petals 6, rotate, yellow-green inside and out  ovary 5 mm. across, 7-8 mm. long; stamens 6, swollen at base.

Habitat: Escape from cultivation.  Widely cultivated for its fibre.  (Huxley, et al. Vol. II 358).

Name:  Furcraea, for Antoine Francois Fourcroy, 1755-1809, French chemist.  (Huxley, et al. Vol. II 358).

General:  Rare in the study area with only two clumps of the plant known and these off Back Bay Dr. near its termination at Eastbluff Dr. The plants are large but tucked away in a heavy mule fat thicket.  Until they bloomed in 1998, they were unknown to me. I missed the 1998 bloom period, and saw the plans early in 1999 only with their many bulbils, however, in the year 2000 several of the plants bloomed and I was able to obtain samples of the flowers and photograph them   Before the flowers have fallen, small dark green bulbils begin to form on the flowering stems.          Furcraea rarely sets seed but frequently produces large numbers of bulbils, which root when they fall to the ground; these have a capacity to remain viable over a period of years under very unfavorable conditions.  (Huxley, et al. Vol. II 358).      Furcraea is much like Agave, differing in that the flowers are rotate rather than funnelform with stamens swollen at base rather than filiform. (Bailey 238)             My specimen does not have the white flowers that Bailey attributes to the genus Furcraea.  (Bailey 238).  (my comment).            The 1993 Jepson manual includes Agavaceae within Liliaceae.  (my comment).        Comparison of the DNA sequences for various genes, usually those found in the chloroplast of the plant cell has led biologists to propose many changes in the plant families as they are now known.  It is proposed to move the genus Agave from Liliaceae back to Agavaceae.    (Kelch, Dean G. “Consider the Lilies” FREMONTIA, A Journal of the California Native Plant Society Vol. 30 No. 2 April 2002 pp. 23-29).         In the above article, no specific mention is made of the genus Furcraea but I assume it will also be move back to Agavaceae.  (my comment).

Text Ref:  Bailey 238; Huxley, et al. Vol. II 358.

Photo Ref: Mar-April 99 #11A,14A,21A; July 99 #7; Sept-Oct 2000 #12,14,16,18,24A.

Genus identity: by John Johnson.

First Found:  March 1999.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 517.

Flower specimen donated to UC Riverside in 2004. 

Last edit. 8/6/05. 

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