Agave hybrids: part one.

Agave flowers in the UK used to be rare, with the amount of collections and time many growers have had their plants, they are getting more common every year. I know many people who have had not just one plant flower but several.  Once flowering, the ultimate dream for many growers is to produce a hybrid. So It is no surprise that more agave hybrids are coming on the market all the time, some purposely produced, others lucky coincidences. 

Once such event happened with a good friend.  His a. obscura came into flower and he managed to get hold of some pollen from a. lophantha. I was offered some of the resulting seed, but not having much luck with seeds I waited until there were some young plants. They seems to fall into two groups, one with a well defined mid stripe, the other with darker spines.

The one on the right has nice dark teeth and for me is the nicer of the two forms. I prefer good teeth to central stripes and it has a more defined look:

I am sure the donor will be asking for regular updates to check he hasn't given away the best plants. Mind you he has a few spares, plus a few hundred seeds left.