? Agave bracteosa
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Liliopsida Order: Asparagales Family: Agavaceae Genus: Agave Species: A. bracteosa
Binomial name
Agave bracteosa S. Wats. ex Engelm. 1882

Agave bracteosa is a species of agave sometimes known as "spider agave". Scientific classification or biological classification is how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms. ... Divisions Land plants (embryophytes) Non-vascular plants (bryophytes) Hepatophyta - liverworts Anthocerophyta - hornworts Bryophyta - mosses Vascular plants (tracheophytes) Lycopodiophyta - clubmosses Equisetophyta - horsetails Pteridophyta - true ferns Psilotophyta - whisk ferns Ophioglossophyta - adderstongues Seed plants (spermatophytes) †Pteridospermatophyta - seed ferns Pinophyta - conifers Cycadophyta - cycads Ginkgophyta - ginkgo Gnetophyta - gnetae Magnoliophyta - flowering plants Adiantum pedatum (a fern... Classes Magnoliopsida - Dicots Liliopsida - Monocots The flowering plants (also angiosperms or Magnoliophyta) are one of the major groups of modern plants, comprising those that produce seeds in specialized reproductive organs called flowers, where the ovulary or carpel is enclosed. ... Orders Base Monocots: Acorus Alismatales Asparagales Dioscoreales Liliales Pandanales Family Petrosaviaceae Commelinids: Arecales Commelinales Poales Zingiberales Family Dasypogonaceae Monocotyledons or monocots are a group of flowering plants usually ranked as a class and once called the Monocotyledoneae. ... Families according to the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group Agapanthus Agavaceae Alliaceae Amaryllidaceae Aphyllanthaceae Asparagaceae Asphodelaceae Asteliaceae Blandfordiaceae Boryaceae Doryanthaceae Hemerocallidaceae Hyacinthaceae Hypoxidaceae Iridaceae Ixioliriaceae Lanariaceae Laxmanniaceae Orchidaceae Ruscaceae Tecophilaeaceae Themidaceae Xanthorrhoea Xeronema Asparagales is an order of monocots which includes a number of families of non-woody plants. ... Genera See text Agavaceae is a family of plants that includes many well-known desert and dry zone types such as the agave, yucca, and Joshua tree. ... Species Agave americana Agave fourcroydes Agave sisalana many others, see text Agaves are succulent plants of a large botanical genus of the same name, belonging to the family Agavaceae. ... In biology, binomial nomenclature is a standard convention used for naming species. ... George Engelmann George Engelmann (also known as Georg Engelmann) was a German-American botanist. ... Species Agave americana Agave fourcroydes Agave sisalana many others, see text Agaves are succulent plants of a large botanical genus of the same name, belonging to the family Agavaceae. ...

Small among the agaves, its green succulent leaves are long and lanceolate, 50-70 cm long and 3-5 cm at the base, where they are the widest. They have minute serrations along the margins, no teeth, no spine at the end, and have a tendency to curl somewhat, in a fashion reminiscent of the octopus agave A. vilmoriniana. The inflorescence spike is also short at 1.2-1.7 meters, and its upper third is densely covered with white or pale yellow flowers. The flowers are distinctive in that tepals arise from a disk-shaped receptacle rather than the usual tube. The stamens are quite long. Binomial name Agave vilmoriniana Berger, 1913 Ref: ??? Agave vilmoriniana, sometimes misspelled vilmoriana, and popularly known as Octopus agave, is a species of agave known for its untoothed arching and twisting leaves. ... A magnolia flower showing the petal-like white tepals In a general sense, a tepal is any member or segment of the perianth of a flower, such as a petal or sepal, usually used when all are of similar shape and color (that is, undifferentiated). ...

It is endemic to a small region of the northern Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico, found on cliffs and rocky slopes from 900 to 1,700 meters. The Sierra Madre Occidental is a mountain range in western Mexico and the extreme southwest of the United States, extending 1500 km from southeast Arizona (south and east of Tucson) southeast through eastern Sonora, western Chihuahua, Durango, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes to Guanajuato, where it joins with the Sierra Madre Oriental and...

Gentry defines a group "Choritepalae" that includes A. bracteosa along with Agave ellemeetiana and Agave guiengola, and states that the discoid receptacle and unarmed leaves are different enough from other agaves to justify placing A. bracteosa and A. ellemeetiana into a separate genus, but that characteristics of A. guiengola link the group to the rest of Agave.

Reference

• Howard Scott Gentry, Agaves of Continental North America (University of Arizona Press, 1982) pp. 91-93