Agave amica - (Syn) Polianthes tuberosa 'The Pearl'

Agave amica is the new taxonomic name for that gorgeous sweetly-fragrant plant that we have all known as Polianthes tuberosa. 'The Pearl' is the double-flowering form of Tuberose and is usually still found listed as Polianthes tuberosa 'The Pearl'. This taxonomic placement is now recognised by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in their Plants of the World Online listing although it seems somewhat unlikely that gardeners or the horticultural world will start refering to it by its new taxonomic name any time soon.

Long celebrated for the exquisite perfume of its flowers, Tuberose has been grown as a tender ornamental for centuries. A herbaceous geophyte, originally from Mexico, it is understood to have been cultivated by the Aztecs. It produces from it tuberous rootstock a rosette of long, narrow, semi-succulent foliage. In summer, a tall scape between 70-100cm emerges on which are borne the waxy, white flowers. The fragrance is overpowering.

It had been known since the mid-1990s, both by morphological and DNA study that Polianthes tuberosa was placed within the Agavoideae and studies showed that the three genera, Manfreda, Polianthes and Prochnyanthes were all nested within the larger genus Agave. In 2017, Joachim Thiede and Rafaël Govaerts published their paper, 'New combinations in Agave (Asparagaceae): A. amica, A. nanchititlensis, and A. quilae' in the journal Phytotaxa, Vol. 306 No. 3 and the taxonomic wanderings of Polianthes tuberosa came to an end as Agave amica.