Flora of New Zealand Series

Robust, arborescent or tufted perennials, with rootstock or rhizome. Stem stout, woody, short or sometimes forming a heavy trunk. Leaves narrow, usually simple, often thick, usually crowded towards apex of stem. Inflorescence racemose or paniculate, sometimes large; branches subtended by bracts. Flowers bisexual or unisexual, actinomorphic or slightly zygomorphic; perianth-segments 6, unequal to subequal, ± connate into tube. Stamens 6, shortly adnate to segments; filaments free; anthers introrse, linear, usually dorsifixed, 2-locular, dehiscing by longitudinal slits. Ovary superior or inferior, often beaked, 3-locular; placentae axile; style simple; ovules solitary in each locule, or superposed in 2 series. Fruit a capsule or berry. Seeds few to many, compressed. Genera c. 20, mostly of tropics and subtropics.

Fig. 12. AGAVACEAE: A-B: leaf margin; A: Furcraea. B: Agave. C: for comparison, Aloe (Liliaceae). © All rights reserved. [Image: 26WX]