Manfreda, Large leafed Manfreda

I have not grown this plant. Manfreda elongata is native to Mexico (Durango, Nayarit).

Originally collected by Joseph Nelson Rose in 1897 and lodged with the US National herbarium in 1903, this plant has suffered a confusing...Read More history at the hands of various botanists. It was also described as Agave gracilis in 1915 but this name was illegitimate due to having been used by Jacobi in 1871 for the plant that we now know as Agave atrovirens. Subsequently it was transferred to Polianthes by Lloyd Herbert Shinners in Sida in 1966 but I do not believe this has been widely accepted. Shinners also subsumed the name Polianthes rosei into this taxon in 1967. The name Agave gracillima has been even more recently (1989) revived from Berger's 1915 publication errata by those botanists who prefer to keep Manfreda as a Subgenus or Section of Agave, rather than giving it full generic status. Agave elongata could not be used as this would also be an illegal combination owing to the name having already been used by Jacobi in 1865 for the plant now known as Agave rigida. Thus we have either Manfreda elongata OR Agave gracillima as the two "correct" names for this rarely seen species.