Furcraea foetida (L.) Haw.
Robust perennials not dying after flowering. Trunk short, 0.8-1.3 m × 10 cm. Leaves many in a rosette, 1-2.5 m × 10-20 cm, broadly lanceolate, stiff, flat towards tip, deltoid (in T. S.) towards base, margins with ± regularly spaced, horny spines curved towards leaf-tip, or margins entire; tip pungent and horny. Panicle open, tall, erect, to 10m high, ± 14 cm diam. at base, contracting abruptly to ± 9 cm then tapering gradually, branches glabrous. Flowers 3-4 cm long, pendulous on short pedicels c. 1 cm long, strongly scented, whitish-green, perianth fleshy. Fruit not seen but bulbils freely produced in axils of bracteoles, with leaf-margins spiny or entire.
K., N. Kawau Id. Naturalised garden escape; in semi-shade.
(S. America; Brazil)
First record: Sykes 1977: 152.
First collection: Kermadec Is "Raoul Id, Denham Bay, low and rather open Myoporum forest behind beach" W.R. Sykes 442/K, 21.12.1966 ().
FL. 10.
Buchanan (T N.Z.I. 9, 1877, 508) refers to Sir George Grey' s planting of F. foetida on Kawau Id (under the name Fourcroyia gigantea, a later synonym) and notes. "This tree produces a fine fibre, and grows well without any cultivation on the worst clay hills." On Kawau Id in the Kermadecs both spiny-leaved and smooth-leaved plants are found.
