Agave From Tissue Culture

Rancho Tissue Technologies, Inc., a tissue culture lab specializing in new and unusual plant varieties, has recently introduced an exciting series of Agave. The new line consists of seven varieties that offer a wide assortment of foliage colors and shapes.

Growing Agaves in tissue culture allows Rancho Tissue Technologies (RTT) to create a uniform product in significantly less time than through conventional propagation methods. By using tissue culture, RTT can produce in one year what growers that use traditional methods would need several years to grow. In addition, Agave seed is not readily available, making traditional propagation methods even more complicated.

“Several of our new varieties are hybrids, and the only reliable and time efficient way to propagate those is through tissue culture,” explains Heather May, president of RTT. “We selected varieties with the best color, leaf shape, markings, and rapid growth so that the plantlets our customers buy result in superior plants.”

The word “Agave” is derived from the Greek word for “noble,” and the new series from RTT truly lives up to such high expectations. Species, hybrids, and varieties in the series are:

Agave attenuata ‘Huntington Blue’, a variety with silver blue, smooth leaves without teeth and a beautiful inflorescence with chartreuse colored flowers on a ten-foot spike.

A. celsii ‘Dwarf Century Plant’ features a symmetrical rosette with short, broad, gray-green leaves with fleshy teeth.

A. gemniflora, a hard to find species with a dense rosette that branches when the plant is older, and stiff, dark green, twenty-inch leaves with smooth edges.

A. guiengola, a striking ornamental with very broad, smooth, silver green leaves.

A. parryi v. truncata, which forms a stem-less rosette with dark green, eight-inch long leaves with a pale center band and small spines.

A. scabra x Fernandi Rex, a very compact hybrid with smooth, deep green leaves.

A. weberii, with large, spreading, gray-green leaves with no teeth but a dark, terminal spine.

The new Agave series is excellent for landscape applications in hot, dry climates and an excellent xeriscape plant for water-wise gardening.

Rancho Tissue Technologies, Inc. (RTT) is a tissue culture lab specializing in new and unusual plant varieties. Established in 1987 by Heather May, RTT provides tissue culture liners and micro cuttings as well as custom propagation and virus eradication services to the horticulture industry. curntly a staff of over 20 international researchers and scientists work in state-of-the-art laboratories and greenhouses to propagate over 1000 different varieties. For more information, visit www.ranchotissue.com.