Blue agave

A wild variety of agave grows in western Mexico in a dry tropical climate at an altitude of more than 1,500 meters above sea level, preferring red sand with a high sand content. Both the domesticated and wild species begin their life cycle with a period of intensive growth as a drought tolerant plant with long, fleshy arrow-shaped leaves typical of agaves, reaching a length of 2 meters or more. In wild agaves, after reaching the age of five, an shoot of about 5 meters long appears, crowned with an inflorescence of yellow flowers. The flowers are then pollinated at night by one of the local species of bats - Leptonycteris nivalis , and then several thousand seeds ripen in their place. After that, the wild plant dies.

Mexican researchers from the University of Guadalajara in the course of research concluded that blue agave contains compounds and trace elements that increase the effectiveness of medicines in gastroenterology to combat colitis and Crohn's disease.

In domesticated species, an shoot with buds that are nascent is usually removed so that core growth continues, and a remote shoot is planted in the ground for germination. A similar technique of vegetative propagation (without pollination) has led to the fact that most modern domesticated plants are clones , which means that the genetic diversity of domestic agaves is very small.

At home, agaves are rarely kept as houseplants due to their enormous size and pricklyness, but it is known that a 50-year-old blue agave in one of Boston's greenhouses gave a flowering shoot 10 meters high, for the flowering of which it was necessary to make a hole in the roof.

Harvesting for the production of tequila is carried out according to modern standards of producers only for the 12th year. Farm workers with the help of koa remove first the thorny leaves, and then the agave roots. After that, a large core weighing 35-90 kilograms is subjected to heat treatment to extract juice , fermentation and distillation . Other traditional Mexican drinks, such as mezcal and pulque , are also made from blue agave using slightly different methods, but also by extracting the juice.

In Mexico , the birthplace of agaves, and especially in the state of Jalisco, the life and culture of the population, both urban and rural, are more or less permeated by the symbolism of this plant, its cultivation and everything connected with it. The collection of agaves is called in Spanish the chima (jima), and the pickers (usually poorly educated semi-nomadic mestizos of mixed, including Native American origin) are called the chimadors jimador / a / s, also just the hornalers (jornalero / a / s; literally day laborers), who during harvest live in temporary dugouts and huts near the field, plantation, which, as a rule, is part of a large hacienda (also a ranch , latifundia ), founded back in the colonial period . The life and life of tequileros collectors and producers served as the plot for the Mexican television series “Cleansing Love”, in which Angelica Rivera played the main role. In small towns, large and small street taverns are especially common, in which it is customary to serve tequila and perform Mexican folk music by the Mariachi folk choirs. A striking example of this is the city of Tequila (Jalisco) .

Due to a sharp decrease in the genetic diversity of domesticated agaves, their immunity to diseases and parasites has sharply decreased. Since 2000, 25-30% of plants have been affected by various putrefactive diseases and pests, collectively called for this scourge - TMA syndrome ( abbreviation of the letters Tristeza y muerte de agave . "Agave wilting and death"). Particularly harmful to blue agaves is the larva of the beetle , the weevil Scyphophorus acupunctatus . The fungus Thielaviopsis paradoxa, in turn, prevents the formation of the root system in young plants. According to a 2004 study, many agaves suffered from other fungal pathogens : Erwinia carotovora , Enterobacter agglomerans , Pseudomonas mendocina , and Serratia , which led to decay of the agave leaf cover.