Texas False Agave

Hechtia texensis was considered to be endemic to Texas and known only from the type collection, while all other collections from trans-Pecos Texas, except those of H. glomerata, were recognized as H. scariosa (D. S. Correll and M. C. Johnston 1970; L. B. Smith and R. J. Downs 1974). Hechtia texensis was distinguished from H. scariosa by sepal shape and size, using pistillate sepals from H. texensis and staminate sepals from H. scariosa. When flowers of the same sex from each taxon were compared, it was impossible to distinguish H. texensis from H. scariosa using sepal shape or other floral characters (K. Burt-Utley and J. F. Utley 1987).

Plants 0.7--1.3 m in flower. Leaves pungent; blade to 44 ´ 1.5--4.5 cm. Inflorescences: staminate and pistillate inflorescences 2--3-pinnately compound, scaly; proximal primary bracts inconspicuous, shorter than lateral branches; lateral branches laxly to densely flowered, occasionally appearing capitate, 1--21.5 cm. Staminate flowers nearly sessile, scaly; floral bracts 4.5--7 mm, exceeded by sepals; sepals ovate to ovate-elliptic, 4.5--5 mm; petals 7.5--9 mm. Pistillate flowers subsessile, scaly; floral bracts 4--6 mm, exceeded by sepals; sepals ovate to broadly ovate, 4.5--7 mm; petals ovate, 7.5--10 mm; ovary almost wholly superior. Capsules 8.5--12.5 mm, scaly, glabrescent with age.

Tex.; Mexico.

Flowering spring--early summer.

Dry limestone slopes and bedrock, gravely soils; 600--1150m.

Hechtia scariosa L. B. Smith

Hechtia scariosa L. B. Smith, Contr
Gray Herb. 117: 20. 1937.
Only the staminate plant known, probably 2 m. tall or more; leaves 35 cm. long; sheaths broadly ovate, 4 cm. long, denticulate toward apex, pale-brown, lustrous; blades narrowly triangular, 2 cm. wide, glabrous above, densely pale-appressed-lepidote beneath; scape slender, glabrous; upper scape-bracts ovate, acuminate, shorter than the internodes; inflorescence laxly pyramidal, 55 cm. long, minutely pale-lepidote; primary bracts like the scape-bracts, 25 mm. long; branches much divided, up to 16 cm. long, compressed near the base; racemes densely spiciform or lax near the base; floral bracts broadly ovate, acuminate, slightly shorter than the sepals, deep-rose with a broad scarious margin; flowers spreading; pedicels very short, obconic; sepals elliptic, acute, 6 mm. long, 1-5-nerved, deep-rose with a broad scarious margin; petals elliptic, obtuse, 9 mm. long, coimate for 3 mm.; stamens included, very unequal; renuiant of the ovary more than half superior.
Type locality: Limestone ledges, hills near Jimulco, Coahuila.
DisTRiBtmoN: Coahuila.

Hechtia texensis S. Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 20: 374. 1885
Plant variable in habit, 2 m. high; leaves many in a dense rosette, up to 8 dm. long; sheaths large, subovate; blades linear-triangular, pungent, up to 4 cm. wide, densely appressedcincreous-lepidote below, soon glabrous and shiny above, laxly serrate with uncinate spines up to 8 mm. long; scape erect, over 1 m. high, 2 cm. in diameter near base; scape-bracts erect, the lower subfoliaceous, densely imbricate, the upper remote, ovate, acuminate, brown when dry, subchartaceous ; inflorescence laxly bipinnate or tripinnate, subthyrsoid, sparsely white-floccose when young; branches up to 2 dm. long, at least the larger ones laxly flowered toward the base; floral bracts very broadly ovate, acute, hyaline with several dark nerves, shorter than the sepals; flowers subscssilc, erect or suberect, 8-10 mm. long; sepals broadly ovate, acute, up to 6 mm. long, white, membranaceotis, with 5 dark nerves, the central one extending to the margin, the female ones sotncwhat thickened with age; petals elliptic, white, white-lepidotc dorsally, the female short-connate, the male connate for about one-third their length; stamens included; ovary densely white-tomentose-lepidote; stigmas sessile.
TvPB locality: Limestone bluffs in the Great Bend of the Rio Grande, western Texas. Distribution: Southern and western Texas.

Hechtia texensis, commonly known as Texas false agave, is a species of bromeliad that is native to the Trans-Pecos of Texas in the United States and northeastern Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Zacatecas).