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''Agave tequilana'', commonly called blue agave () or tequila agave, is an agave plant that is an important economic product of Jalisco, Mexico, due to its role as the base ingredient of tequila, a popular distilled beverage. The high production of sugars, mostly fructose, in the core of the plant is the main characteristic that makes it suitable for the preparation of alcoholic beverages. The tequila agave is native to Jalisco, Mexico. The plant favors altitudes of more than and grows in rich and sandy soils. Blue agave plants grow into large succulents, with spiky fleshy leaves, that can reach over in height. Blue agaves sprout a stalk (''quiote'') when about five years old that can grow an additional ; they are topped with yellow flowers.〔Gentry, Howard Scott. Agaves of Continental North America. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1992.〕〔Weber, Frederic Albert Constantin. Bulletin du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle 8(3): 220–223, f. 1–2. 1902.〕 The stalk is cut off from commercial plants so the plant will put more energy into the heart. The flowers are pollinated by a native bat (''Leptonycteris nivalis'') and produce several thousand seeds per plant. The plant then dies. The shoots on commercial plants are removed when about a year old to allow the heart to grow larger. The plants are then reproduced by planting these shoots; this has led to a considerable loss of genetic diversity in cultivated blue agave. It is rare for one kept as a houseplant to flower, but a 50-year-old blue agave in Boston grew a stalk requiring a hole in the greenhouse roof and flowered in the summer of 2006. ==Tequila production== Tequila is produced by removing the heart (''piña'') of the plant in its twelfth year. Harvested ''piñas'' normally weigh .〔 This heart is stripped of its leaves and heated to remove the sap, which is fermented and distilled. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Agave tequilana」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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