FOOD RESOURCE COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SCIENCES, OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
AGAVE AMERICANA,Amaryllideae, AMERICAN ALOE, CENTURY PLANT, MAGUEY
Hedrick, U.P. editor. 1919. Sturtevant's Notes on Edible Plants. Report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station for the Year 1919 II. Albany, J.B Lyon Company, State Printers. [References Available]
is a plant in tropical America. the first mention of the agave is by Peter martyr, contemporary with Columbus, who, speaking of what is probably now Yucatan, says: "they say the fyrst inhabitants lyved contented with the roots of Dates and magueans,w hich is an herbe much lyke unto thaat which is commonly called sengrem or orpin." The species of agave, called by the natives maguey, grows luxuriantly over the table-lands of Mexico and the neighboring borders and are so useful to the people that Prescott calls the plant the "miracle of nature". From the leaves, a paper resembling the ancient papyrus was manufactured by the Aztecs; the tough fibres of the leaf afforded thread of which coarse stuffs and strong cords were made; the leaf, when washed and dried, is employed by the Indians for smoking like tobacco but being sweet and gummy chokes the pipe; an extract of the leaves is made into balls which lather with water like soap; the thorns on the leaf serve for pins and needles; the dried flower-stems constitute a thatch impervious to water; about Quito, the flower-stem is sweet, subacid, readily ferments and forms a wine called pulque of which immense quantities are consumed now as in more ancient times; from this pulque is distilled an ardent, not disagreeable but singularly deleterious spirit known as vino mescal. The crown of the flower-stem, charred to blackness and mingled with water, forms a black paint which is used by the Apaches to paint their faces; a fine spirit is prepared from the roasted heart by the papajos and Apaches; the bulbs, or central portion, partly in and partly above the ground are rich in saccharine matter and are the size of a cabbage or sometimes a bushel basked and when roasted are sweet and are used by the Indians as food. Hodge, writing of Arizona, pronounces the bulbs delicious. Bartlett mentions their use by the Apaches, the Pimas, the Coco Maricopas and the Dieguenos Tubis.
The agave was in cultivation in the gardens of Italy in 1586 and Clusius saw it in Spain a little after this time. It is now to be found generally in tropical countires. The variety which furnishes sisal hemp was introduced into Florida in 1838 and in 1855 there was a plantation of 50 acres at key West.