Table 1.

Summary of varieties, uses, environmental tolerance ranges, management requirements, devoted land area, and economic value of CAM species with potential agricultural importance

Species	Number of variants	Uses/products	Optimal Temp (°C)	Temperature tolerance range (°C)	Optimal annual rainfall (mm)	Average annual rainfall in growing region (mm)	Fertilizer required	Center of diversity	Mechanized harvest	Land area currently dedicated (ha)	Current economic value (million US$ year−1)
Agave americana L.a	10	Ornamental, pulque, fiber, anti-inflamatory, anti-carcigenic, antioxidant, steroidal, bioethanol	25 day/15 night	−9–>50	530	600–800	Unknown, broad tolerance	Northern Mexico and Southwestern USA	No	None commercial	Unknown
Agave angustifolia Haw.b	>20	Mescal, brooms, fiber or textiles, pulque, rope	22–38	5–50		125–1680	Unknown, not usually applied	Oaxaca	No	~249	206
Agave fourcroydes Lem.c	3	Fiber for textiles, rope, fuel, sandals, construction	18–36	−2–40		500–1000	Unknown, leaves and bagasse	Yucatan	No	~15 000	12.6
Agave mapisaga Trel.d	1	Pulque, fiber, cattle feed, food, construction	12–16		700		Unknown, manure	Central Mexico	No	None commercial	Unknown
Agave salmiana Otto ex Salm-Dycke	4	Pulque, mescal, food, jewellery, toys, decoration, ornamentals, fuel, poultice	12–16			125–800	Unknown	San Luis Potosi and Hidalgo	No	~59 000	0.063
Agave sisalana Perrinef	2	Fiber for textiles, ornamental, medicine	35–40	5–40	1200	500–800	Variable	Unknown, introduced from Mexico	No	331 330	111
Agave tequilana Weber var. azulg	7	Tequila, fuel, sweeteners	30 day/15 night	−3–>50		700	40–60 kg N ha−1 year−1, other nutrients depend on soils	Jalisco	No	330 000	314
Aloe spp.h	360 species	Burns, digestión, inflammation, wounds, diabetes, immunity, antitumorigenic, cosmetics, ornamental, phytoremediation	Variable	Variable	150 ml kg−1 plant	>100	Manure used at 5–10 Mg ha−1	Southern Africa, Arabian peninsula	Partially		100 (raw) 125 000 (in products)
Aloe barbadensis i			19–27	10–30	1900–3000		80–40–80 or NPK		Partially
Ananas comosus (L.) Merrill j	5 varieties, 13 cultivars	Fruit, beverages, fiber or textiles, medicine, poison, fishing line, nets, hammocks	30 day/20 night	0–>35	600		25–100 kg N ha−1 to soil, 200–600 kg N ha−1 year−1 to leaves; 25–100 kg P ha−1	Guiana Shield in South America	Partially	1 122 520	3351
Cactaceae family (except Opuntia)k	>>100 wild species, 12 domesticated, many managed	Ornamental (both potted and landscape plants), fruit, medicinal use, ceremonial use	Variable, but mainly dry-tropical 15–35	Variable, 0–>50	ca 500	50–500	Broad tolerance, well-drained soils	Mexico, South America	No	Unknown acreage under cultivation. Millions of ha in wild populations	Unknown, but likely in the range of 20–200. Rapidly increasing
Opuntia ficus-indica l	81	Food, beverages, cosmetics, forage, pharmaceuticals	25 day/15 night	−7–65	500		50–100 kg N ha−1 year−1, 10–30 kg P ha−1 year−1, 20–50 kg K ha−1 year−1, 10–50 kg ha−1 year−1, Ca at planting	Central Mexico	No	>600 000	2520
Orchidaceae familym	>29 000 species	Ornamental (both cut flowers and potted plants), food, medicinal use, ceremonial use	Variable	Variable	Variable	Variable	Variable	Tropical humid climates	Only for ornamental
Vanilla Mill.n	107 species	Food, spice, medicine, woven figures and baskets	21–32	10–33	>1500	>1500	Unknown, mulch and compost	Central Mexico	No	93 119	762

^a Gentry, 1982; Ocaña-Nava et al., 2007; Escamilla-Treviño, 2012; Hamissa et al., 2012.

^b Gentry, 1982; Colunga-GarcíaMarín et al., 1999; Aguirre et al., 2001; Bautista-Cruz et al., 2007; Eguiarte and Souza, 2007; Palomino et al., 2007; Zizumbo-Villarreal and Colunga-GarcíaMarín, 2007; Rivera-Lugo et al., 2018.

^c Colunga-GarcíaMarín et al., 1993; Colunga-GarcíaMarín and May-Pat, 1993; Irish and Irish, 2000.

^d Cruz-Ramírez et al., 2006; Aguilar-Juárez et al., 2014.

^e Gentry, 1982; Ocaña-Nava et al., 2007; Aguilar-Juárez et al., 2014; Esparza-Ibarra, 2015.

^f Gentry, 1982; Debnath et al., 2010.

^g Valenzuela-Zapata, 1994; Valenzuela-Zapata, 1997; Mancilla-Margalli and López, 2006; Bautista-Cruz et al., 2007; Pimienta-Barrios et al., 2007; Holtum et al., 2011; Núñez et al., 2011.

^h Grindlay and Reynolds, 1986; Ahlawat and Khatkar, 2011; Liontakis et al., 2016; Katerere, 2018.

ⁱ Saha et al., 2005; Ahlawat and Khatkar, 2011.

^j Bartholomew et al., 2002; Ming et al., 2015; FAOSTAT, 2018.

^k Casas and Barbera, 2002; Nerd et al., 2002.

^l Nobel and Israel, 1994; Nobel, 2002; Nobel and De la Barrera, 2003; Griffith, 2004; Stintzing and Carle, 2005; Feugang et al., 2006; Aguilera-Barreiro et al., 2013; Yang et al., 2015a; Arba et al., 2017; Inglese et al., 2017.

^m Arditti, 1992; De La Cruz Medina et al., 2009; Silvera et al., 2009; Swarts and Dixon, 2009; De et al., 2014; Fay, 2018.

ⁿ Fouché and Jouve, 1999; Cameron, 2011.