This agave gets about 3’ tall, slightly wider than tall. Plants also sucker to form colonies. The leaf blades are rough and grayish green (like shark skin). This species is monocarpic (dies when it blooms, as all agaves do) and when it blooms, will send up a 20-foot flower spike of mostly infertile flowers.

Plant in full to part sun, and provide low water with good drainage. Plants are hardy into the low 20s°F.

It was discovered growing at the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek, California.

The genus Agave is derived from Greek mythology being the daughter of Cadmus, who supposedly founded the city of Thebes; it generally translates to mean “noble’. The one species (nickelsiae) was named by Roland-Gosselin who named the plant in honor of Anna Nickels, an intrepid Texan who collected various plants in the 1800's in Mexico. The other species, scabra, is Latin for 'rough, scabby'.

Photo by Chris A. Martin, Virtual Library of Phoenix Landscape Plants