Agave eggersiana and Solanum conocarpum

FOG: If they are in the National Park on St John, you might call the NPS info # at 776-6201. You might get shuttled around a bit (write down everyone's name and their area of interest!), but they have some incredibly knowledgable people. The other idea would be the Cooperative Externsion Service. Again, you might get sent all over, but you probably will find someone... While we are talking about Century Plants...I have heard that there is/was some sort of blight? I rarely see them on St Thomas now...

FOG,

I need to go out front and give a much closer look to two plants growing out there in large, heavy pots. The description I found when I looked up century plant to see what you were talking about says that it is often mistaken for aloe. I did think those two plants werealoe, but thought they were the biggest, thickest aloe plants I'd ever seen. Will check out the spines and tip to see if what we really have is St. Croix agave. If we think it really might be a century plant, we'll take a digital pic and send it to you for your independent verification.

I also owe you a big thanks for teaching me even more about local flora and geography. In the process of learning about the century plants, I discovered that the area near Sion Farm known locally as Tan-Tan Terrace is yet another neighborhood that was named after a plant: the trees covered with 6" brown pods that you see all over the island are Tan-Tans.

Thank you for another great post. I feel like I'm benefitting so much from your seemingly ceaseless quest for knowledge about your new home, and I love it. I'm certain that many, many others do, too.

HC

Here is the press release we received about it...

For Immediate Release:
September 1, 2004

Peter Galvin
California and Pacific Director
Center for Biological Diversity
pgalvin@biologicaldiversity.org

www.biologicaldiversity.org

LAWSUIT FILED TO PROTECT TWO IMPERILED VIRGIN ISLAND PLANT SPECIES Development, feral animals threaten St. Croix and St. John plants
with extinction

Atlanta-The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit in
Federal District Court today in Atlanta, Georgia to compel Gale
Norton, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior and the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service to take action to list two extremely rare Virgin
Island plant species under the Endangered Species Act.
Agave eggersiana and Solanum conocarpum are two rare plant species
native only to the U.S. Virgin Islands. Agave lives only on the
island of St. Croix where only a handful of plants remain. Solanum is
limited to the island of St. John, where there are approximately 190
plants living in the wild. Both species face continued threats from
residential and tourist development and feral animals.
Recognizing that these two species were facing extinction, the
Department of Planning and Natural Resources, Division of Fish and
Wildlife, of the U.S. Virgin Islands submitted a petition to the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to protect them under the Endangered
Species Act. In November 1998, FWS found that the petition presented
substantial information indicating that listing may be warranted but
has taken no further action. The Endangered Species Act gives FWS one
year from the date a petition is submitted to determine whether to
list a species under the Act. FWS is more than six years overdue
taking action to protect these imperiled plant species.
Peter Galvin, Conservation Director for the Center for Biological
Diversity, stated, "The Virgin Islands are a treasure chest of
nature's wonders. We must take action today to protect this marvelous
ecosystem if our children and grandchildren are to know the wonders
of nature that we enjoy."
Robin Cooley of the Center for Biological Diversity, Environmental
Law Clinical Partnership at the University of Denver College of Law
stated, "Numerous species have gone extinct while awaiting protection
under the Endangered Species Act. We are taking this legal action
today to insure that these beautiful rare plants do not meet the same
fate."
The Center is represented in the case by Robin Cooley of the
Environmental Law Clinical Partnership, Center for Biological
Diversity at the University of Denver College of Law and Lawrence D.
Sanders of the Turner Environmental Law Clinic at Emory University
School of Law. The case number is 1:04-CV-2553.

BACKGROUND
Agave eggersiana is a robust, perennial herb that can grow from 16
to 23 feet tall. Its flowers are large and funnel or tubular shaped.

Agave eggersiana
Agave is native only to the island of St. Croix of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Habitat for the species on the island of St. Croix is under intense
pressure from both residential and tourism development.
Solanum conocarpum is a thornless flowering shrub which may reach
more than 9 feet in height.

Solanum conocarpum
Solanum is native only to the island of St. John of the U.S. Virgin
Islands. There are approximately 5 Solanum plants located within the
Virgin Islands National Park and 185 on private land. The largest
known population of around 183 plants is located on a small section
of private land on Nanny Point/Estate Concordia.

________________________

The EPA has an article about it as well:

http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-SPECIES/1998/November/Day-16/e30540.htm

_________________________
A side note:
We had done an article for our newsletter on a few endangered animals in the Virgin Islands that you might find interesting:

http://vinow.com/news/aug03/animals.php

Also this site list endangered animals and plants in the Virgin Islands:

http://rps.uvi.edu/CES/endangered.html

--Islander

Thanks for the responses.

East Ender, I can't quickly find what the disease of the century plants is. In Mexico in recent years, farmers who raise Agave to make tequila are facing Fusarium oxysporum, a fungus found worldwide, and Erwinia caratavora, a bacteria with a whip-like tail that allows it to move and spread in water. If the rainy seasons on St. Thomas have been unusually wet in recent years, diseases like these tend to flair up. You might call the extension. I know some people at the extension here, and I'll call soon with my questions.

HC, Aloe (pronounced ay-LOW-ee, not AL-oh) has points on the leaves that are somewhat sharp. Agave has points that are killers. Also, Aloe leaves are thick and somewhat spongy. Agave leaves are flatter and firm. You would probably have to examine the flowers and fruits very carefully to determine what species of plant you have. The tan-tans are Leucaena leucocephala. I believe they're native to Cuba and the Bahamas and were introduced here primarily as a cattle feed.

Islander, Thanks for the additional information.

The reason I posted was because I'd like to get some seeds of the St. John plant and some offsets or babies of the St. Croix plant. I work as an estate gardener and use much of my free time learning about plants native to the VI. My goal is to have a fairly large nursery in about five years that sells only plants native to the VI. Some are endangered or threatened due to development, so I want to get as many as possible into people's yards. Many of them are very beautiful and are adapted to our dry climate. You don't need to put in an irrigation system, keep turning on the hose, and keep calling the water truck.

FOG,

I just sent you some pics of the plants in our yard. As against the odds as it seems to be, they match up pretty well with the descriptions of agave. Am hoping you can make a more educated determination from the photos.

HC

Whoops, FOG -- spoke too soon about sending the pics. Just got a bounce notice indicating that the address you included in your board profile timed out, as did all retries.

Is there a better address to try? Or perhaps I can post them somewhere and you can review them online. Let me see what web space I can access through this dialup connection.

HC