Experience growing Agave obscura?

[nsp88]

After reading about some of @Paul S's trips around Mexico, I was thinking about a previous trip of mine and an area we drove through. It was where high elevation (dry and sometimes fairly cool) met up with the warmer humid Gulf Coast area.

Anyways, I looked to see what agaves are growing in that area and I saw agave obscura is growing in that area. They are mostly on the more humid warmer side, but some were growing up on the higher cooler area. Since they are found in both areas, I was wondering if it might be a pretty resilient plant. Hopefully it might be one of those plants that can make it here with some minor help during winter.

Does anyone here have one and can share how it handles cold and rain? I searched and saw older posts about a few people thinking they had some, but they were improperly labeled. I saw that you had one @Gee.S, but your climate is so dissimilar to mine, that I don't think it would provide any relevant insight (If you ever get any kind of seeds or offsets or anything though, I'd be interested).

Has anyone in a wetter or colder climate had one? If so, how has it done? Any insight or opinions on it?

[Gee.S]

A. obscura is a lot like A. mitis. What's good for one...

[Meangreen94z]

There are claimed hardy forms, but I think the species must be highly
variable if true. I bought some from a nursery that claimed they would be hardy but they didn’t survive low 20s and ice. It was in a container though which can make a huge difference.

[nsp88]

A. obscura is a lot like A. mitis. What's good for one...

K cool, thanks! I am seeing 20 on that one. If same for obscura, it could survive most of the winter, but would need help during winter storms. I could handle that. Some of the photos I am seeing are pretty and some are kinda meh. Hopefully I can find something from the prettier ones

[nsp88]

There are claimed hardy forms, but I think the species must be highly
variable if true. I bought some from a nursery that claimed they would be hardy but they didn’t survive low 20s and ice. It was in a container though which can make a huge difference.

Hmm, would be nice to find some of those and test them. I am not finding much available of any variety of them. Some seeds in Etsy and some old unavailable striped listing on pdn. Also haven't had a ton of time to look; I am getting over COVID, but now the rest of the house is sick.
Thanks!

[Gee.S]

A. obscura is a lot like A. mitis. What's good for one...

K cool, thanks! I am seeing 20 on that one. If same for obscura, it could survive most of the winter, but would need help during winter storms. I could handle that. Some of the photos I am seeing are pretty and some are kinda meh. Hopefully I can find something from the prettier ones

One other small point, like mitis, it's pretty defenseless -- easy pickins if agave-loving beasties are around.

[nsp88]

A. obscura is a lot like A. mitis. What's good for one...

K cool, thanks! I am seeing 20 on that one. If same for obscura, it could survive most of the winter, but would need help during winter storms. I could handle that. Some of the photos I am seeing are pretty and some are kinda meh. Hopefully I can find something from the prettier ones

One other small point, like mitis, it's pretty defenseless -- easy pickins if agave-loving beasties are around.

K thanks. Since they are not the most cold hardy, I would probably keep in the raised bed at my apartment. Cats, birds, and squirrels are the only animals around, and so far no problems there.

[Paul S]

I grow both mitis and obscura and in my conditions find obscura to be slightly more cold tolerant.

[nsp88]

I grow both mitis and obscura and in my conditions find obscura to be slightly more cold tolerant.

Awesome, good news! Thanks

[nsp88]

I am finally organizing and planting seeds this week. Finally looked at the obscura seeds I received a couple weeks ago.

On Etsy they were labeled obscura, but the package is labeled a little differently.

The horrida ssp perotensis label is wrong, right?

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[Paul S]

The picture on the seed packet is right for Agave obscura. There is an accessible population by the side of the road that lives as understory in a pine forest so pictures of this taxon usually show the plants covered in pine needle litter like that - I have near identical pictures on my hard drive (except mine were blurry)

The name is one of those complicated situations where a name change has left confusing synonyms. Doubly confusing as in this case it was 2 name changes. If you look in the Gentry book, Agave obscura refers to a plant that is in what used to be called the marginatae group (and is now called something else that I can't remember ).

The plant pictured - from Veracruz and around that way - used to be called Agave polyacantha var. xalapensis. Type was near Xalapa, hence the name.

Somewhere along the way a couple of name changes happened - the name Agave polyacantha var. xalapensis was dropped and the plant was renamed Agave obscura. The 'old' obscura became Agave horrida subsp. perotensis, presumably to fill a void but maybe not. You'd need to check the papers for when and why - my guess would be that it happened that way around.

So, if you look at just the names of the plants, from an incorrect perspective the names Agave obscura and Agave horrida subsp. perotensis could be considered as synonyms, even though they don't refer to the same plant. If you are with any of that.

I wish 'they' wouldn't do it.

(Was there ever a straight Agave polyacantha? We need to know)

[nsp88]

The picture on the seed packet is right for Agave obscura. There is an accessible population by the side of the road that lives as understory in a pine forest so pictures of this taxon usually show the plants covered in pine needle litter like that - I have near identical pictures on my hard drive (except mine were blurry)

The name is one of those complicated situations where a name change has left confusing synonyms. Doubly confusing as in this case it was 2 name changes. If you look in the Gentry book, Agave obscura refers to a plant that is in what used to be called the marginatae group (and is now called something else that I can't remember ).

The plant pictured - from Veracruz and around that way - used to be called Agave polyacantha var. xalapensis. Type was near Xalapa, hence the name.

Somewhere along the way a couple of name changes happened - the name Agave polyacantha var. xalapensis was dropped and the plant was renamed Agave obscura. The 'old' obscura became Agave horrida subsp. perotensis, presumably to fill a void but maybe not. You'd need to check the papers for when and why - my guess would be that it happened that way around.

So, if you look at just the names of the plants, from an incorrect perspective the names Agave obscura and Agave horrida subsp. perotensis could be considered as synonyms, even though they don't refer to the same plant. If you are with any of that.

I wish 'they' wouldn't do it.

(Was there ever a straight Agave polyacantha? We need to know)

Awesome, thank you so much for the details and background!

I didn't know if they just were completely wrong, if it was a name change, some non-agreed-upon naming, or something else.

I drove right by all that and had no clue. When we were driving to Xalapa it was late and after dark (and crazy clouds/fog). And when we left we were tired and rushing and it was fairly early morning. Of course, I wasn't into agaves back then so I probably wouldn't have noticed any of it. Later on in this same trip was when I first started noticing agaves, though. But that was all the huge plants I would see at ruins and such and all the giant roadside farms we passed that grabbed my attention.

Anyways, thanks!

[abborean]

mitis has taken brief upper single digits F here in SE NC. Ugly as hell afterward but fine. Haven't tried obscura but guess I should.

[nsp88]

mitis has taken brief upper single digits F here in SE NC. Ugly as hell afterward but fine. Haven't tried obscura but guess I should.

Awesome! Great to know, thanks. Do you recall if it was covered or fully exposed?

[abborean]

fully exposed one raised bed out from the south side of the house

[nsp88]

Not a dang seed popped up. I did them at the exact same time and conditions as I planted 4 other types of agave seeds that succeeded. Maybe these are picky on temps? Who knows. Company that sold them said they were going to test some out and see. So we will see if it was me or the seeds.