Agaves of Continental North America Paperback – April 1, 2004

Gentry spent interminable years observing agaves from stem to flower in harsh environments and in his own yard in California. Truly a legend! The writing style is easy, though his botanical plant descriptions use difficult to understand botany terminology which are not uniform throughout the book which makes it difficult to compare agaves from one section to another. But considering the limitations of the time, its nothing short of fantastic and definitely THE agave bible. Some of the taxa have changed such as Agave bakeri, and so it may take some research to bring this to today's agave taxa, but that only adds to your knowledge. If you love agaves, read and study this book.

For anyone interested in the gritty detail of Agaves, up to and including scientific and academic rigor, look no further. This tome (and it is indeed a hefty one) has just about everything you could possibly want to know about almost every common (and many un-common) species and varieties. There is a reason that people refer to this book as the "Agave Bible" and after about five minutes of pouring through it, you will very likely agree with them. Gentry spent a significant portion of his life on the research and field studies that went into crafting this masterpiece, and you can genuinely identify with his passion for the subject whenever you dig into the entries in this book. It is extremely well written and the documentation is top rate, with everything from species descriptions, relevant history/cultural considerations, habitat, growth patterns and flowering, often covered via detailed drawings, photos (yes, they are black and white) and maps.If you're into Agave plants to any extent, whether as a gardener, collector, hobbyist, grower or simply an interested reader, you will find something here that is worthwhile. For the immense volume of information contained within, this paperback is fantastic value that should not be passed up.

This is a great reference for anyone interested in Agaves. Yes, it is 1982; yes, there are no color photos. But there is more information on Agaves in this book's 670 pages than most people can imagine, including habitat and distribution, detailed descriptions, cultural uses, keys to various Agave groups, and much more. If you love Agaves (or just studying them) you need this book.

Agaves of Continental North AmericaThis is a beautiful book and it must have all the Agaves in North America listed.It was recommended in a class by the Agave instructor at Desert Botanical Garden.If you want in-depth Agave information, you won't be disappointed.I enjoy having this in my Desert Landscape collection as a reference. Expensive but it is a textbook

a wealth of info even if drawings and pictures are all black in white, it can get a little heady reading at times, but still one of top three books on agave out there a must have book

The standard work on Agaves. It is become slightly out of date, since new species have been discovered since publication, but it is invaluable for the Agave lover.

Shock was the word to describe my opening this book and finding the print upside down. Well, I thought, I can read this book upside down. I tried to read it, opening the book to the first page only to find the last page of the index and "About the Author!" In short order I realized the only way to examine this book was upside down and reading back-to-front. Pages are cut off on the sides. Pages are in backwards. Margins are all wrong. No quality control. No thought. I will be returning this farce. What a shame for the State of Arizona. Normal publishers would have burned this book. Normally I do not advocate book burning, but this book would be at the top of my list at the next bonfire.

I was disappointed to see that the book did not have a taxonomic key nor did it have a glossary for technical terms. Also, one page has already come out due to its cheap binding. Binding with glue is not enough for a book to last very long, the glue becomes brittle over time and more pages will fall out. Smyth binding which involves stitching the pages and then gluing them is the way to go. All of my published books have Smyth binding, which is especially important for field guides.

Excellent

Das Buch ist trotz seines Alters ein muß für ambitionierte Pflanzenfreunde, aber definitiv nichts für Einsteiger. Man kauft das Buch wegen der informationen zu Abstammung und Verbreitung.Ich hätte mir für die Neuauflage ein Hardcover gewünscht und dafür gern mehr bezahlt.

Un must concernant les agaves,! A réserver aux passionés de ces plantes.Date un peu sur les aspects de classification.Livre très utile et formateur.Manque la couleur mais pardonnable du fait de son âge.

Excelente libro para los agaves de México y Norte America. Tiene fotografías de todas las especies, lástima que estén en blanco y negro. Además tiene una clave para los grupos y cada grupo tiene clave para diferenciar entre especies.

A fantastically interesting book but this copy was significantly damaged by its inadequate, cardboard envelope-style packaging containing another, thinner paperback book (also damaged) as well, by the time it arrived.