Amazing local botanicals: Agave

Agave’s Greek root means admirable or illustrious, and the plant certainly is. As a family, Agave has given us food and drink, shelter and medicine, needle and thread, cloth and paper, and so much more. Of the 15 or so Agaves growing in Texas, the Agave Americana, or Century Plant, is the one most often seen in Austin. It has a long history of medicinal use including as a laxative, diuretic, cough syrup, emmenagogue and antisyphilitic.

For more local botanicals, see Medicine4EveryBody (coming soon).

Photo credit: Virginia Suanders, www.florigraphy.com/
A special thanks to Ginnie for her sensitive botanical portraits, particularly of the agaves