Agave victoriae-reginae 'White Rhino'

Origin

Agave victoriae-reginae 'White Rhino' is a horticultural cultivar of the species, which is native to a small area of the Chihuahuan Desert in northeastern Mexico, primarily the limestone canyons of Coahuila, Nuevo León, and a sliver of San Luis Potosí (Northern America). The cultivar was selected in Japanese and Southeast Asian tissue-culture programmes for its broader, brighter cream-white leaf margins and is propagated only vegetatively. The species itself was named in the nineteenth century in honour of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

Habitat

In its natural environment, the parent species is a specialist of semi-arid limestone canyons and rocky north-facing cliffs of the Chihuahuan Desert, where it grows in narrow crevices in calcareous rock at altitudes around 500–1500 meters above sea level. Rainfall is low and erratic, concentrated in a brief summer monsoon, and the air stays dry for most of the year. The cultivar retains these tolerances but in cultivation is grown almost exclusively as a container specimen rather than a landscape plant.

Description

Agave victoriae-reginae 'White Rhino' is a compact, architectural rosette agave prized for the strong white striping that runs along the leaf margins, the most contrast-heavy form of the species currently in horticultural trade.

Size & Rosette: The rosette is solitary and tightly symmetrical, reaching 30–45 cm across and slightly less tall at maturity, with leaves arranged in a near-perfect geometric spiral.

Leaves: Leaves are short, stiff, broadly triangular, and very dark green, edged with conspicuous broad, smooth, chalky-white marginal bands that meet at the leaf tip to form a clean black terminal spine. The white margins are the diagnostic feature of this cultivar and are wider and brighter than in the standard form.

Spines & Margins: The leaf margins are smooth, lacking the small teeth of many other agaves, and end in a stout, sharp black terminal spine. The combination of smooth edges, hard tip, and bold white striping gives the plant its sculptural, carved-marble look.

Flowers: Like all agaves, the rosette is monocarpic and flowers only once, after many years, sending up a tall stalk of greenish-yellow tubular flowers. Cultivated specimens are usually kept for their foliage rather than flowers.

Cultivation: Grow in a sharply drained, mineral-rich mix under bright light to full sun. Water moderately in the warm growing months and keep the plant nearly dry in cool weather. It is hardy to light frost when kept dry, and propagation is by offsets or tissue-cultured plantlets since the cultivar does not come true from seed.