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American aloe

DEFINITIONS OF: American aloe

1

n tropical American plants with basal rosettes of fibrous sword-shaped leaves and flowers in tall spikes; some cultivated for ornament or for fiber

Synonyms:
agave, century plant
Types:
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Agave americana, American agave
widely cultivated American monocarpic plant with greenish-white flowers on a tall stalk; blooms only after ten to twenty years and then dies
Agave sisalana, sisal
Mexican or West Indian plant with large fleshy leaves yielding a stiff fiber used in e.g. rope
Agave cantala, cantala, maguey
Philippine plant yielding a hard fibre used in making coarse twine
Agave atrovirens, maguey
Mexican plant used especially for making pulque which is the source of the colorless Mexican liquor, mescal
Agave tequilana
Mexican plant used especially for making tequila
dracaena
an agave that is often cultivated for its decorative foliage
Nolina microcarpa, bear grass
stemless plant with tufts of grasslike leaves and erect panicle of minute creamy white flowers; southwestern United States and Mexico
bowstring hemp, sansevieria
grown as a houseplant for its mottled fleshy sword-shaped leaves or as a source of fiber
Dracaena draco, dragon tree
tall tree of the Canary Islands; source of dragon's blood
African bowstring hemp, African hemp, Sansevieria guineensis
bowstring hemp of South Africa
Ceylon bowstring hemp, Sansevieria zeylanica
plant having thick fibrous leaves transversely banded in light and dark green
Sansevieria trifasciata, mother-in-law's tongue, snake plant
stemless plant having narrow rigid leaves often cultivated as a houseplant
Type of:
desert plant, xerophile, xerophilous plant, xerophyte, xerophytic plant
plant adapted for life with a limited supply of water; compare hydrophyte and mesophyte
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