Colliguaya integerrima Gill. et Hook. ex Hook. (Euphorbiaceae), a native shrub of Patagonia Argentina and Chile, produces seeds with high drying oil content and is being evaluated as a potential new crop for this region.

Natural populations of this species from three different locations in Patagonia, Argentina were studied in order to assess seed production, oil content and quality of different type of seeds. Plants producing 400 g of seeds were not difficult to find. Proximate analysis of the seed is: 35% oil, 40% chaff, and 25% of meal (containing 51% of protein, with a lysine value of 3.17_g/16_g N₂. This meal was not toxic when included in mice diet. Latex production and composition is another potentially useful characteristic of Colliguaya. The adaptation of this species to temperate semi-deserts, together with other features such as seed attachment to the mother plant, the ease with which dormancy can be broken by chilling or storage, and the possibility of asexual propagation by rhizome cuttings, increase the interest and possibilities of domestication and cultivation of the species.

Several multi-hectare agave plantations have been established in Southern Arizona since 1980 to evaluate growth potential of both native and introduced agave species under desert conditions. This is the first extensive evaluation of agave as a row crop in the United States. With one or two supplemental irrigations at the Marana Agricultural Center, several agave species achieved biomass accumulations greater than 100 kg over a three-year growth period. Infra-red thermal measurements indicated that all species showed CAM metabolism under periods of high temperature stress (in excess of 40°C) with adapted desert species responding more quickly to irrigation than introduced tropical species. Root and crown tissues of A. americana, the fastest growing species tested, contained 50% carbohydrate on a dry weight basis, which would qualify them as a viable botanical ethanol source. HPLC analyses of steroid content of these species are underway, as are fiber analyses. In summary, these data support agave as a potential multi-use crop for the and Southwest. Ability to grow with less than 30 cm rainfall per year makes agave a low input crop adaptable to large areas of this region presently not under cultivation.