Description: Arborescent or shrubby plants, stem sometimes very short; plants often long-lived, flower only once and then die.
Leaves tufted or in rosettes, succulent, long-lived, spine-tipped, margins ± spinose-toothed.
Inflorescence paniculate, on a terminal scape. Flowers bisexual, ± pendent, 1–3 in axils of bracts or some replaced by bulbils. Tepals ± spreading, united basally. Ovary inferior, 3-locular; style stout; stigma small, 3-lobed.
Fruit a capsule; seeds flattened.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 20 species, America. Australia: 2 species (naturalized), Qld, N.S.W.
Furcraeahas commonly been included in the segregate family Agavaceae.
Text by G. J. Harden
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Furcraea foetida |
|
