Effects of atmospheric CO2 enrichment on the growth of a desert succulent: Agave vilmoriniana Berger

Small well-watered ‘plantlets’ of Agave vilmoriniana Berger collected from the flower stalk of a single parent plant were grown out-of-doors at Phoenix, Arizona in clear-plastic-wall open-top enclosures exposed to ambient air and air enriched with CO2 to 300 μl. l−1 above ambient. Analysis of 12 harvests of three plantings conducted over a period of 4 years revealed a temperature-dependent CO2-induced growth enhancement for this desert succulent. The linear function used to describe the relationship was indistinguishable from a similar relationship previously derived for 16 non-CAM plants.