Species
+

Agave cupreata Trel. & A.Berger

Asparagaceae

Climate known 62 photographs Cactus or succulent
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Agave cupreata is a species of plant in the family Asparagaceae, and is found only on mountain slopes of the Rio Balsas basin in the Mexican states of Michoacán and Guerrero at elevations of 1,200–1,800 meters (3,900–5,900 ft). A. cupreata is a long-lived plant with mature leaves reaching between 40–80 cm (16–31 in) in length and a flowering stalk of 4–7 m (13–23 ft). The age of maturity for A. cupreata is variable, but generally occurs at any time from 5–15 years. A monocarpic perennial which does not reproduce clonally, A. cupreata allocates its accumulated resources toward the production of a single inflorescence and dies following the production of seeds.

Text from Wikipedia, “Agave cupreata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Agave

Agave is a genus of monocots native to the arid regions of the Americas. The genus is primarily known for its succulent and xerophytic species that typically form large rosettes of strong, fleshy leaves.

Text from Wikipedia, “Agave”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
Trel. & A.Berger
Native to
Mexico Southwest
Wild records
343 in range· 234 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Apr, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1029mm/yr
6 wet months · peak Jul 225 mm (CHELSA)
Light
32–48DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Agave, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1029 mm a year, wettest July at 225 mm, driest March at 6 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 32 to 48 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 4.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Agave, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (822 mm of 1029 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.6 °C against a yearly mean of 20.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1029 mm a year, wettest July at 225 mm, driest March at 6 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1029 mm a year at the habitat, 822 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 225 mm, driest March at 6 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 781 mm to 1420 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 32 to 48 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 32 to 48 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 29, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 4.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 4.5 °C, the absolute minimum -1.8 °C, 3 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 10.1 °C in January (across the envelope cells 5.7 °C to 14.1 °C), warmest day 29.6 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 4.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 47 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 24 °C in Sep to 30 °C in Apr; mean night from 10 °C in Jan to 16 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1029 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 72 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -1.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost35.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)-1.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 32–48RH 47–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 72 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C24 / 20–2826 / 21–3028 / 23–3230 / 25–3329 / 25–3326 / 22–2925 / 21–2925 / 21–2924 / 20–2824 / 20–2825 / 20–2924 / 20–28
Night °C10 / 6–1411 / 6–1512 / 8–1614 / 9–1816 / 11–1916 / 12–1915 / 11–1915 / 11–1915 / 11–1814 / 10–1812 / 8–1611 / 6–15
Rain mm13 / 8–2711 / 7–176 / 4–912 / 8–1754 / 41–70188 / 151–259225 / 161–305213 / 151–298196 / 150–28487 / 63–13117 / 10–277 / 4–11
DLI34 / 31–3539 / 37–4045 / 44–4648 / 47–4845 / 43–4636 / 33–3936 / 32–4135 / 32–4033 / 29–3633 / 31–3634 / 31–3532 / 30–34
RH %52 / 48–5450 / 47–5248 / 44–5147 / 44–5053 / 48–5663 / 57–6865 / 58–6866 / 58–6966 / 61–7162 / 56–6656 / 52–6053 / 49–56

Each figure is the median across the 72 grid cells holding the 211 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1443:1631 (17.825, -98.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 4.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 72 distinct grid cells holding the 211 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1443:1631 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 18.00_-98.125, lapse-corrected +168 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1676 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Southwest
Kew's description“succulent perennial” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker17.653, -99.264 · in the densest population, 275 records (80% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 343 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 234 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 7 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 132 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 343 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Agave cupreataAgave cupreataAgave cupreataAgave cupreataAgave cupreataAgave cupreataAgave cupreataAgave cupreata

Photographs: (c) Jose Antonio Aranda Pineda, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) José Javier Barrios Flores, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Agave cupreata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Los sistemas agroforestales tradicionales de México: Una aproximación biocultural
Ana Isabel Moreno-Calles, Víctor M. Toledo, Alejandro Casas (2013) · Botanical Sciences
Traditional Fermented Beverages of Mexico: A Biocultural Unseen Foodscape
César Iván Ojeda-Linares, Gonzalo D. Álvarez-Ríos, Carmen Julia Figueredo-Urbina, Luis Alfredo Islas (2021) · Foods
El endemismo en las Liliopsida mexicanas
Adolfo Espejo‐Serna (2017) · Acta Botanica Mexicana
The genus Agave in agroforestry systems of Mexico
Ignacio Torres-García, Francisco Javier Rendón‐Sandoval, José Blancas, Alejandro Casas (2019) · Botanical Sciences
Effect of ultrasound intensification on the supercritical fluid extraction of phytochemicals from Agave salmiana bagasse
Liliana Santos‐Zea, Janet A. Gutiérrez‐Uribe, J. Benedito (2018) · The Journal of Supercritical Fluids
Mezcal Production in Mexico: Between Tradition and Commercial Exploitation
Melchor Arellano‐Plaza, Jesús B. Páez‐Lerma, N.O. Soto-Cruz, Manuel R. Kirchmayr (2022) · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
Species distribution modelling supports “nectar corridor” hypothesis for migratory nectarivorous bats and conservation of tropical dry forest
Rachel A Burke, Jennifer K. Frey, Amy C. Ganguli, Kathryn E. Stoner (2019) · Diversity and Distributions
Phylogeny, Diversification Rate, and Divergence Time of Agave sensu lato (Asparagaceae), a Group of Recent Origin in the Process of Diversification
Ofelia Jiménez-Barrón, Ricardo García-Sandoval, Susana Magallón, Abisaí García-Mendoza (2020) · Frontiers in Plant Science
Pectobacterium and Dickeya: Environment to Disease Development
Ian K. Toth, Marie‐Anne Barny, May Bente Brurberg, Guy Condemine (2021)
Genetic structure of coexisting wild and managed agave populations: implications for the evolution of plants under domestication
Carmen Julia Figueredo-Urbina, Alejandro Casas, Antonio González‐Rodríguez, Jafet M. Nassar (2015) · AoB Plants

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Agave 252 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 31 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.