Book review: Meeting Agave utahensis by Dan Zarrella

Dan Zarrella (mojave.lv), one of the country’s leading experts on Agave utahensis, has written two guest posts for Succulents and More:

• Agave utahensis in habitat and in cultivation (September 2024)
• Agave utahensis clonal rings (November 2024)

Now Dan has published his first book based on years of field research and practical propagation experience: Meeting Agave utahensis. Read on to find out more.

If you’re interested, you can pre-order the book for $30 until September 9, 2026. This includes a signed softcover edition of the book, a high-resolution PDF for instant download, and a bonus packet of Agave utahensis seeds harvested from hand-pollinated plants in Dan’s collection.

All the photos and pullout quotes below are from the book. © 2026 Dan Zarrella. All rights reserved.

Book cover

Of the 270+ species of agaves, few have the allure and mystique of Agave utahensis, one of North America’s most distinctive agaves. This is doubly true for variety eborispina, which is coveted and collected by aficionados worldwide because of its long and often fantastically twisted spines. Since Agave utahensis is very slow-growing, wild populations are under intense threat from poaching and habitat loss.

Meeting Agave utahensis is the first book ever dedicated entirely to this remarkable species. Dan Zarrella, a social media and marketing specialist by profession and an amateur botanist by passion, has spent considerable time observing Agave utahensis in its native habitats and has done extensive research into the use and management of Agave utahensis among the Indigenous peoples of southern Nevada. The book examines a broad set of topics, ranging from taxonomy and ethnobotany to habitat destruction, wild collecting, and climate change to propagation and responsible buying.

The result is part field guide, part historical investigation, part conservation plea, and part cultivation advice, written in an approachable language easily understood even by readers who aren’t hardcore agave nerds. And since the habitats of varieties nevadensis and eborispina extend into California, the book will be of interest to California native plant enthusiasts as well.

Table of contents

The book begins in Red Rock Canyon near Las Vegas, where Dan introduces visitors from Japan to plants they had previously encountered only in collections and photographs. In habitat, Agave utahensis is considerably more variable than the typical nursery and collector forms suggest. Plants vary in size, coloration, spine length, and growth habit, with differences associated in part with elevation, geology, and isolated mountain habitats. Dan uses these observations to introduce the concept of “sky islands,” where populations occupy mountain environments separated by warmer and drier valleys on between. He suggests that historical changes in climate may have brought some currently isolated populations into contact, which would help explain the species’ considerable variation.

“Agave utahensis is a notably variable species. Two plants growing feet from each other can look completely different. One will have short, straight spines, and the next will have wavy spines and thick lateral teeth. A few steps away will be one whose teeth look less like teeth and more like fringe.”

A major portion of the book examines the long relationship between Agave utahensis and Indigenous peoples of the region. Archaeological evidence suggests that in southern Nevada Agave utahensis was cooked for thousands of years and consumed as food. Dan describes roasting pits associated with Agave utahensis and draws on accounts of the harvesting practices of the Nuwuvi, or Southern Paiute people. Plants were selected and harvested according to established practices, while portions of the plant were left in the ground, capable of regenerating and producing new growth.

Agave utahensis var. eborispina

A clonal ring of Agave utahensis

Agave utahensis is exceptionally cold hardy

Dan argues that these harvesting practices helped maintain healthy populations. He surveyed 96 clonal clumps and rings of Agave utahensis and identified examples that, according to his proposed dating method, predated European settlement and overlapped the period of active Nuwuvi harvesting. He contrasts this history with the wild-harvesting of agaves in Mexico for mezcal production, where removing mature plants before seed production can reduce regeneration and genetic diversity.

“Large-scale Indigenous harvesting of utahensis went on for thousands of years—seven times longer than mezcal harvesting has been happening in Mexico—and their populations do not look damaged. They look abundant. There are hundreds, thousands of clumps and rings on every hillside near roasting pit sites. There is still so much diversity here that Gentry called it a species trait.”

The book also traces the complicated taxonomy of Agave utahensis, including the changing treatment of eborispina, nevadensis, and kaibabensis. Differences between populations have sometimes been treated as evidence for separate taxa and at other times as variation within a broadly defined species. The result is a nomenclature that has changed repeatedly and does not always correspond neatly to what can be observed in the field.

Flower stalk of a merged-spine specimen known online as “The GOAT” cut off by unknown perpetrators to collect its seed

Another topic that receives considerable attention in the book is modern collecting and habitat loss. Agave utahensis is popular with collectors because of its compact form, distinctive spines, and variation between populations. Some plants available to collectors are nursery-grown, while others have been obtained from wild populations. Dan discusses the difficulty of determining provenance, particularly when plants pass through commercial channels and lose their original documentation — if it existed in the first place.

“[Collectors] want rare specimens, from well-known locations. Forbidden locations. The line between legal collection and poaching is purely paperwork. And even that doesn’t stop much of the industry.”

Dan is particularly concerned about plants entering international horticultural markets without reliable information about their origin. He advocates documenting legitimate salvage, expanding propagation from known material, and emphasizing seed-grown plants. He also proposes greater regulatory oversight, including possible CITES protection, to improve transparency in international trade.

Wild-collected Agave utahensis for sale at a nursery outside Las Vegas

Since they were dug from private land, they’re not considered poached

The final chapter is about growing Agave utahensis. This is a topic of particular relevance to collectors, especially since Agave utahensis is often challenging to grow and keep alive in cultivation. Dan stresses that Agave utahensis needs regular water during times of active growth provided the soil dries between waterings. He describes a simple method of weighing potted specimens before and after watering to determine the optimal watering schedule.

“We don’t need to steal agave to have a collection. A seed-grown utahensis is slow and small, but it’s also honest. It’s the result of months and years of light, water, airflow, and waiting. But it doesn’t empty hillsides. It doesn’t take without giving back. And it doesn’t hide its provenance. A seed tray with a label is the opposite of a black plastic pot with only a price tag.”

The most important thing I learned is that Agave utahensis, while it loves a great deal of light, is not very tolerant of heat. That explains why over the years I’ve lost several specimens planted in the ground in full summer sun. In cultivation, Agave utahensis is best grown in bright shade or, as Dan does, indoors under full-spectrum LED lights.

“People have been a part of the Agave utahensis story for thousands of years. For most of that time, even when something was taken, roots were left behind.… Cultivated plants aren’t wrong, but they do carry a responsibility. The machinery of the supply chain takes without giving back. It names from a distance and attaches only price tags. It leaves holes with no roots. Grow utahensis with roots.”

Ultimately, the book places some responsibility on collectors and growers. A cultivated Agave utahensis can represent successful conservation if it was propagated responsibly, but the same plant can represent the loss of a wild individual if its origin is unknown or questionable. The distinction is important because the growing popularity of unusual agaves can create commercial incentives to collect plants faster than wild populations can recover. Dan’s central argument is that the future of the species depends in part on changing the relationship between collectors and wild populations. Cultivation can play a positive role, but only if it reduces rather than increases the demand for plants taken from their natural habitats. The book provides a useful reminder that successful cultivation begins not only with knowing how to grow a plant, but also with understanding where it came from and how it was obtained.

Another spectacular specimen of Agave utahensis var. eborispina

Meeting Agave utahensis is one of only a few books dedicated entirely to one agave species (there are several books on the commercial cultivation of Agave tequilana). It's a much overdue addition to the literature on agaves, and a book of interest to anybody concerned about the threats facing the plants we love so much.

© Gerhard Bock, 2026. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.