Agave tequilana planting these shoots; this has led to a considerable loss of genetic diversity in cultivated blue agave. It is rarely kept as a houseplant, 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 is made only from a specific cultivar of "Agave tequilana" called 'Weber Azul'. This cultivar is larger and blue-gray in color compared to the smaller and green normal "A. tequilana". It is a rapid grower and prolific offsetter in keeping with its agricultural advantages. Tequila is produced by removing the heart
Agave was a major food source for the prehistoric indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. The Hohokam of southern Arizona cultivated large areas of agave. The Navajo similarly found many uses for the agave plant. A beverage is squeezed from the baked fibers, and the heads can be baked or boiled, pounded into flat sheets, sun dried, and stored for future use. The baked, dried heads are also boiled and made into an edible paste, eaten whole, or made into soup. The leaves are eaten boiled, and the young, tender flowering stalks and shoots are roasted and eaten as well.