Meeting Agave Utahensis Living Bibliography

Below is a list of sources for my monograph Meeting Agave Utahensis. I will update this page when and if it needs, and if you notice anything missing or incorrect, please let me know.

Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. 2012. Susan Delano McKelvey (1883–1964) papers, 1900–2005: biographical note. Retrieved 13 July 2026 from https://arboretum.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/II_A-4_SDM_2012.pdf — identifies Susan Delano McKelvey as a cousin of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Delano family); supports the Taxonomy "FDR's cousin" detail.

Blue Diamond Hill housing proposals. 2024. Wikipedia. Retrieved 13 July 2026 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Diamond_Hill_housing_proposals — home-count progression (7,000 proposed in 2011 → 5,025 in 2016 → reduced to 3,500) and BLM land-swap talks ending in 2014 (BLM declined, citing mining disruption); Rhodes' 2,400-acre purchase.

Brazil. 2015. Law No. 13,123 of May 20, 2015 (Biodiversity Law): access to genetic heritage, associated traditional knowledge, and benefit sharing. Retrieved 9 July 2026 from https://www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/legislation/details/15741

Breitung, A.J. 1960. Agave utahensis var. eborispina. Cactus and Succulent Journal (Los Angeles) 32: 22.

Burchfiel, B.C., R.J. Fleck, D.T. Secor, R.R. Vincelette, and G.A. Davis. 1974. Geology of the Spring Mountains, Nevada. Geological Society of America Bulletin 85: 1013–1022. — Spring Mountains thrust plates / older-over-younger structural geology; Burchfiel as early-career southern Nevada structural geologist.

Byers, C., P.J. Maughan, J. Clouse, and J.R. Stewart. 2014. Microsatellite primers in Agave utahensis (Asparagaceae), a keystone species in the Mojave Desert and Colorado Plateau. Applications in Plant Sciences 2(9): 1400047. https://doi.org/10.3732/apps.1400047

California. 2023. Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act (enacted July 2023; California Fish and Game Code, fee schedule at § 1927.3). Retrieved 13 July 2026 from https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Environmental-Review/WJT/WJTCA — prohibits the import, export, take, possession, purchase, or sale of western Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) without CDFW authorization; in lieu of compensatory mitigation, permittees pay a per-tree fee of $150–$2,500 per trunk or stem, by tree height and project location (§ 1927.3), deposited in the Western Joshua Tree Conservation Fund for acquisition and management of conservation lands — the extraction-fee / habitat-buyback mechanism.

California Department of Fish and Game. n.d. Ice ages, packrats and ancient trees: climatic environmental change in the Salton Sea Region and Colorado River Basin. Retrieved 15 July 2026 from https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=8658 — supports late-Pleistocene / ~20,000-year-old adjacent Sonoran-Mojave desert conditions as cooler and moister, with January and July average temperatures likely 2–8°C (4–14°F) cooler than today.

California. 1981. California Desert Native Plants Act. California Food and Agricultural Code, Division 23, §§ 80001–80201. Retrieved 25 August 2026 from https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Plants/CA-Desert-Plant-Act — regulates the harvesting, commercial take, transport, and sale of native desert flora across eight southern California counties through mandatory permits, tags, and seals (administered via county agricultural commissioners and sheriffs; enforced in coordination with Cal. Fish and Game Code §§ 1925–1926).

California State Legislature. 2021. Assembly Bill 223 (Ward), 2021–2022 Regular Session: prohibition on the taking and sale of Dudleya. Signed 28 September 2021. Retrieved 9 July 2026 from https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB223

Castetter, E.F., W.H. Bell, and A.R. Grove. 1938. The early utilization and the distribution of agave in the American Southwest. University of New Mexico Bulletin, Biological Series 5(4).

Clark, P.U., A.S. Dyke, J.D. Shakun, A.E. Carlson, J. Clark, B. Wohlfarth, J.X. Mitrovica, S.W. Hostetler, and A.M. McCabe. 2009. The Last Glacial Maximum. Science 325(5941): 710–714. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1172873 — global LGM timing: most ice sheets at maximum positions from 26.5 ka to 19–20 ka.

Cole, K.L. and S.T. Arundel. 2005. Carbon isotopes from fossil packrat pellets and elevational movements of Utah agave plants reveal the Younger Dryas cold period in Grand Canyon, Arizona. Geology 33(9): 713–716. https://doi.org/10.1130/G21769.1

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). 1973. Text of the Convention and List of Parties. Retrieved 13 July 2026 from https://cites.org/eng/disc/parties/index.php — 185 Parties (184 states plus the European Union) as of 2024; international trade regulated through Appendix listings and an import/export permit system.

Desert Companion (Nevada Public Radio). 2026. The weight of our choices: a meditation on the ruining of Blue Diamond Hill. 11 March 2026. Retrieved 13 July 2026 from https://knpr.org/desert-companion/2026-03-11/the-weight-of-our-choices — 18 June 2024 Clark County Commission vote; $80 million settlement; 3,500 luxury homes; county avoided a potential ~$2 billion liability.

Engelmann, G. 1871. Agave utahensis. In S. Watson (ed.), Botany of the United States Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel 5: 497.

Engelmann, G. 1875. Notes on Agave. Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis 3: 291–322.

ENTRIX, Inc. 2008. Characterization of the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area. Landscape analysis, chapter 1. Prepared for the USDA Forest Service, Spring Mountains National Recreation Area, Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.

Escamilla-Treviño, L.L. 2012. Potential of plants from the genus Agave as bioenergy crops. BioEnergy Research 5(1): 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12155-011-9159-x — US Department of Energy–funded Agave bioenergy study; source of the finding that A. utahensis has the highest frost tolerance among agaves, hardy to −23°C (−9°F).

Fowler, D.D. and C.S. Fowler. 1971. Anthropology of the Numa: John Wesley Powell's manuscripts on the Numic Peoples of Western North America, 1868–1880. Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology 14. Smithsonian Institution Press. — Source of Powell’s 1880 “thare [sic] is nothing left for them to depend upon but beg or starve” quote.

Fundación UNAM. 2019. Adopt an endangered plant at UNAM. Retrieved 9 July 2026 from https://www.fundacionunam.org.mx/ecopuma/adopta-una-planta-en-peligro-de-extincion-en-la-unam/

Gentry, H.S. 1982. Agaves of continental North America. University of Arizona Press.

Good-Avila, S.V., V. Souza, B.S. Gaut, and L.E. Eguiarte. 2006. Timing and rate of speciation in Agave (Agavaceae). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 103(24): 9124–9129. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0603312103

Greenman, J.M. and E.M. Roush. 1929. Agave utahensis var. nevadensis. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 16: 390.

Hamilton-Brehm, S.D., L.T. Hristova, S.R. Edwards, J.R. Wedding, et al. 2018. Ancient human mitochondrial DNA and radiocarbon analysis of archived quids from the Mule Spring Rockshelter, Nevada, USA. PLOS ONE 13(3): e0194223. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0194223

Hester, J.P. 1943. Two agaves from southwestern Nevada and eastern California. Cactus and Succulent Journal (Los Angeles) 15(9): 131–135. — Original description of Agave eborispina; type specimen collected on Peek-a-boo Peak, Sheep Range Mountains, about 35 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada, 22 July 1942; includes the military-reservation passage and the “two leaf types” passage.

Hochstätter, F. 2022. Cactus Adventures International Journal. — Elevation of eborispina and nevadensis to subspecific rank (Agave utahensis subsp. eborispina and subsp. nevadensis); current CSSA-accepted classification.

Horwath, B. 2024. County approves settlement, paves way for Blue Diamond Hill housing development. KTNV Las Vegas, June 2024. Retrieved 9 July 2026 from https://www.ktnv.com/news/county-approves-settlement-paves-way-for-blue-diamond-hill-housing-development

Inter-Tribal Council of Nevada. 1976. Nuwuvi: a Southern Paiute history. Inter-Tribal Council of Nevada.

Jacobs, J.F., G.J.M. Koper, and W.N.J. Ursem. 2007. UV protective coatings: a botanical approach. Progress in Organic Coatings 58: 166–171.

Janeba, Z. 2008. Agave utahensis: jewel of the genus. Cactus and Succulent Journal (Los Angeles) 80(6): 299 https://doi.org/10.2985/0007-9367-80.6.299

Janeba, Z. 2010. The Agave utahensis Engelmann complex. Kaktusy Special 2/2010.

Jiménez-Barrón, O., N. García-Sandoval, et al. 2020. Phylogeny, diversification rate, and divergence time of Agave sensu lato (Asparagaceae), a group of recent origin in the process of diversification. Frontiers in Plant Science 11: 536135. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.536135 — origin of Agave sensu lato in the Miocene (~8–10 Ma), with diversification pulses ~6–8 Ma and ~3–2.5 Ma; supports the proto-agave origin-and-northward-expansion reconstruction alongside Good-Avila et al. 2006.

Johnson, S. 2022. County commissioner accused of deleting texts prior to Red Rock Canyon housing vote. Las Vegas Review-Journal, 9 March 2022. Retrieved 12 July 2026 from https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/clark-county/county-commissioner-accused-of-deleting-texts-prior-to-red-rock-canyon-housing-vote-2542521/ — audit found Jones' texts before the April 2019 vote were deleted/unrecoverable.

Kelly, I.T. 2016. Isabel T. Kelly's Southern Paiute ethnographic field notes, 1932–1934, Las Vegas. University of Utah Press. — Kelly field notes / consultant record for the large-scale agave gathering claim: whole camps went after agave, river camps were nearly deserted, and fires from people gathering mescal could be seen on all the mountains; also supports spring timing, specialist oversight, and roasting-process details.

KLAS. 2024. Clark County to consider $80 million settlement in Red Rock developer's lawsuit. 8 News Now / KLAS. Retrieved 12 July 2026 from https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/clark-county-to-consider-80-million-settlement-in-red-rock-developers-lawsuit/ — settlement context; court finding that Jones willfully destroyed evidence viewed as favorable to Gypsum.

Lodge, S.N. 2016. Fire on the mountain: roasting pits in the Sheep Range on Desert National Wildlife Refuge. M.A. thesis, Texas State University.

McCann, C. 2026. My road trip with the do-gooding cactus smugglers. 1843 (The Economist), 6 March 2026. Retrieved 13 July 2026 from https://www.economist.com/1843/2026/03/06/my-road-trip-with-the-do-gooding-cactus-smugglers — investigative reporting on succulent poaching, wild-extraction incentives, and illicit trade in Agave shawii and Dudleya.

McKelvey, S.D. 1949. A new Agave from Arizona. Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 30(3): 227–230. https://doi.org/10.5962/p.185607 — Original description of Agave kaibabensis (basionym for A. utahensis subsp. kaibabensis); type collected on Kaibab Plateau, North Rim of Grand Canyon.

MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. 2024. Professor Emeritus B. Clark Burchfiel, structural geologist who expanded the concept of plate tectonics, dies at 89. Retrieved 12 July 2026 from https://eaps.mit.edu/news-impact/professor-emeritus-b-clark-burchfiel-structural-geologist-who-expanded-the-concept-of-plate-tectonics-dies-at-89/ — Burchfiel biography; field mapping career; MIT appointment; Tibet / China work; Penrose Medal framing.

MIT News. 2009. Recent awards and honors: Burchfiel wins GSA's Penrose Medal. MIT News, 5 October 2009. Retrieved 12 July 2026 from https://news.mit.edu/2009/ah-1005 — Penrose Medal citation; Tibet GPS network; thickened crust and continental collision.

Moreo, M.T., G.B. Senay, A.L. Flint, N.A. Damar, et al. 2014. Hydroclimate of the Spring Mountains and Sheep Range, Clark County, Nevada. U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2014-5142. Retrieved 9 July 2026 from https://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2014/5142/

Mulford, A.I. 1896. A study of the agaves of the United States. Annual Report of the Missouri Botanical Garden 7: 47–100.

Mulroy, T.W. 1979. Spectral properties of heavily glaucous and non-glaucous leaves of a succulent rosette-plant. Oecologia 38(3): 349–357.

National Park Service. n.d. The Old Mormon Fort: birthplace of Las Vegas, Nevada (Teaching with Historic Places). Retrieved 15 July 2026 from https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-old-mormon-fort-birthplace-of-las-vegas-nevada-teaching-with-historic-places.htm — the 1855 missionaries cleared mesquite, dug ditches, and laid out farmland at the Las Vegas Springs, where the Southern Paiute had raised small crops; supports the Medium History ditch-digging and farming-Nuwuvi-land claims.

National Park Service. n.d. Ute raiding along the Old Spanish Trail. Retrieved 13 July 2026 from https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/ute-raiding-along-the-old-spanish-trail.htm — Utes traded captives, mostly Southern Paiute women and children, to New Mexican workshops (obrajes) in exchange for horses along the routes that became the Old Spanish Trail; supports the slave-trade claim.

Nevada Division of State Parks. n.d. Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort State Historic Park. Retrieved 15 July 2026 from https://parks.nv.gov/parks/old-las-vegas-mormon-fort — Mormon missionaries built the adobe fort in 1855 along a spring-fed creek, the only free-flowing water for miles around, which provided irrigation for fields and orchards; supports the Medium History fort, only-free-flowing-water, and farming claims.

Nevada Revised Statutes, Chapter 527 (Protection and Preservation of Timbered Lands, Trees and Flora), §§ 527.060–527.120: tagging and permitting for Christmas trees, cacti, and yucca removed or possessed for commercial purposes. Retrieved 9 July 2026 from https://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/nrs-527.html — "commercial purposes" defined as six or more plants in one calendar day (§ 527.070); a State Forester Firewarden / BLM / U.S. Forest Service tag is required, and a free Nevada Division of Forestry shipping permit is required to move such plants off the parcel of origin, into or out of Nevada (§ 527.080). The statute covers cacti and yucca — not agave.

Nevada State Historic Preservation Office. n.d. Las Vegas Old Mormon Fort (Nevada's oldest building), Nevada Historical Marker No. 35. Retrieved 15 July 2026 from https://shpo.nv.gov/nevadas-historical-markers/historical-markers/las-vegas-morman-fort — thirty-two Mormon missionaries arrived from Utah under William Bringhurst on 14 June 1855, established farm fields, and built a 150-foot-square adobe fort; supports "some thirty men under William Bringhurst," the 150-foot adobe fort, and "Nevada's oldest building."

Nobel, P.S., E. Quero, and H. Linares. 1988. Differential growth responses of agaves to nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and boron applications. Journal of Plant Nutrition 11(12): 1683–1700. https://doi.org/10.1080/01904168809363925

Piazena, H. 1996. The effect of altitude upon the solar UV-B and UV-A irradiance in the tropical Chilean Andes. Solar Energy 57(2): 133–140.

Reveal, J.L. and W.C. Hodgson. 2002. Agave. In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (eds.), Flora of North America north of Mexico, Vol. 26, pages 442–461. Oxford University Press.

Rocha, M., S.V. Good-Ávila, F. Molina-Freaner, H.T. Arita, et al. 2006. Pollination biology and adaptive radiation of Agavaceae, with special emphasis on the genus Agave. Aliso 22(1): 329–344.

Rothberg, D. 2023. Court sanctions commissioner for deletion of texts in Red Rock dispute. The Nevada Independent, 2023. Retrieved 12 July 2026 from https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/court-sanctions-commissioner-for-deletion-of-texts-in-red-rock-dispute — court sanctions over Justin Jones' deleted April 17, 2019 text messages in Gypsum Resources / Red Rock dispute.

Royden, L.H., B.C. Burchfiel, and R.D. van der Hilst. 2008. The geological evolution of the Tibetan Plateau. Science 321: 1054–1058. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1155371 — later-career Tibet / continental deformation context for Burchfiel.

Save Red Rock. 2024. Response to the settlement agreement ($80 million; 3,500 homes; June 18, 2024 Clark County vote). Retrieved 9 July 2026 from https://saveredrock.com/keep-red-rock-rural/

Schultz, J. 2024. County approves development agreement for 3,500 homes on Blue Diamond Hill. FOX5 Las Vegas, 3 July 2024. Retrieved 9 July 2026 from https://www.fox5vegas.com/2024/07/04/county-approves-development-agreement-3500-homes-blue-diamond-hill/

Sebelius, S. 2024. Attorney: Commissioner Justin Jones deleted texts as part of 'political cleansing.' KTNV Las Vegas. Retrieved 12 July 2026 from https://www.ktnv.com/news/attorney-commissioner-justin-jones-deleted-texts-as-part-of-political-cleansing — Jones attorney's explanation for deletion; recovered texts only partial.

Segall, E. 2014. The resurrection of real estate developer Jim Rhodes. VEGAS INC / Las Vegas Sun, 11 May 2014. Retrieved 12 July 2026 from https://vegasinc.lasvegassun.com/business/2014/may/11/resurrection-jim-rhodes/ — Rhodes early work history and Rolls-Royce/Bentley quote.

Smithsonian Institution Archives. n.d. United States Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel (1867–1881). Retrieved 13 July 2026 from https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/auth_exp_fbr_eace0012 — expedition commissioned by Act of Congress 2 March 1867 (Clarence King, U.S. Geologist); botanists William Bailey and Sereno Watson collected approximately 19,000 plant specimens in Nevada and Utah, 1867–1869.

Springs Preserve. n.d. Nuwu Pahsats (The People’s Garden). Permanent ethnobotanical landscape and interpretive exhibition created in partnership with the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe, Moapa Band of Paiutes, Pahrump Band of Paiutes, and Chemehuevi Indian Tribe. Las Vegas, Nevada. Retrieved 17 July 2026 from https://www.springspreserve.org — supports Nuwuvi traditional ecological knowledge, living yant (Agave utahensis) cultivation, roasting pit interpretation, and Nuwu Um-Bah-gha-ha botanical labeling.

Stewart, J.R. 2015. Agave as a model CAM crop system for a warming and drying world. Frontiers in Plant Science 6: 684. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2015.00684

Tom, G. and R. Holt. 2016. The Paiute Tribe of Utah. Pages 123–165 in A history of Utah's American Indians. Utah State University Press. — Supports the “less than twenty-five years of Mormon-settler contact reduced the Paiute population by 90 percent” claim.

UNLV University Libraries, Special Collections and Archives. Blue Diamond Mine Corporate Records (MS-00505). Retrieved 13 July 2026 from https://special.library.unlv.edu/ark%3A/62930/f10338 — gypsum mining at Blue Diamond Hill spanning roughly a century (claim 1905; intensive operations from 1923; mill and company town by 1941; James Hardie Gypsum 1987; mine closed 2004; purchased by Jim Rhodes 2005), supporting the ~75-year mine history.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. n.d. Learn about the UV Index. Retrieved 16 July 2026 from https://www.epa.gov/sunsafety/learn-about-uv-index — EPA explains UV Index adjustments for elevation and cloud cover; UV intensity increases about 6% per kilometer elevation above sea level, supporting the manuscript’s qualified “roughly a few percent per 1,000 feet” wording.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. n.d. Environmental Conservation Online System (ECOS) species profile: Agave utahensis var. eborispina — listing status "Not Listed." Retrieved 13 July 2026 from https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp/species/6410 — confirms A. utahensis is not listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and is not on the CITES appendices; cross-border shipments therefore rely on phytosanitary (plant-health) documentation rather than CITES permits.

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. n.d. Yucca Mountain Project: Native American interaction chronology. Retrieved 17 July 2026 from https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML0037/ML003709908.pdf — Chronology entry quoting Goldfield Review, 28 September 1905: census-taker Harsha White said the southern Nevada “Piute Indian population” had decreased 60 percent since 1890.

Valiente-Banuet, A. 2023. Mezcal boom and extinction debts. Pages 303–318 in C.P. Ornelas-García, R. Pineda-López, and F. Álvarez (eds.), Mexican fauna in the Anthropocene. Springer.

Vaughan, S.J. and C.N. Warren. 1987. Toward a definition of Pinto points. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 9(2): 199–213. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27825307 — Mojave Desert Pinto Period (5000–2000 B.C.) projectile-point typology; supports the Medium History “Pinto-style points … as early as ~5,000 BCE / ~7,000 years ago” human-presence (not roasting-pit) framing.

Waters, C.N., J.P.M. Syvitski, A. Gałuszka, G.J. Hancock, et al. 2015. Can nuclear weapons fallout mark the beginning of the Anthropocene Epoch? Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 71(3): 46–57. https://doi.org/10.1177/0096340215581357

Winter, K. 2019. Ecophysiology of constitutive and facultative CAM photosynthesis. Journal of Experimental Botany 70(22): 6495–6508. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erz002

Yokosuka, A. and Y. Mimaki. 2009a. Steroidal glycosides from Agave utahensis and their cytotoxic activity. Journal of Natural Products 72(8): 1399–1404. https://doi.org/10.1021/np900168d

Yokosuka, A. and Y. Mimaki. 2009b. Steroidal saponins from the whole plants of Agave utahensis and their cytotoxic activity. Phytochemistry 70(6): 807–815. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phytochem.2009.02.013

Zarrella, D. 2024. Agave utahensis clonal rings: artifacts of Indigenous resource management. Cactus and Succulent Journal (Los Angeles) 96(4): 343–359. — Clonal-ring survey and dating near roasting pits; harvest-era age estimates.

Zarrella, D. 2026. Poaching vs. "legal" wild collection and how to spot habitat-dug Agave utahensis. Cactus and Succulent Journal (Los Angeles) 98(1), in press. — Investigation of the opaque wild-collected supply chain; wild- vs seed-grown signals; eborispina mislabeling.