It's been known for several years that it belonged in the Agave family, but the official name was settled upon just a few years ago. I think that this change makes a great deal of sense.

Plant reclassification happens so frequently now that it is impossible to keep up!! Thankfully the old name typically remains as a synonym so you can still find and research under the older labels :-)

And they may make no sense to us but the botanists and taxonomists that make these determinations do not do so lightly or frivolously. It is most often because DNA evidence supports the reclassification based on morphology and reproductive structures.

Why Plant Names Change

GG, I often think it's frivolous just because they want fame/tenure/etc.

I will never ever think of tuberose as an agave!

Thanks all

I do understand the huge changes brought about, in the Biological & Taxonomical(?) worlds, by modern Genomic research. I am all for it.

To me, until today, Tuberose was just another highly scented bulb, that I had NEVER been able to grow, either in UK or Aus. Now I find it isn't actually a bulb, but either a tuber, or a ryzome and it's an Agave.

I have grown many Agaves over the years, and like you, dbarron, in my head, Tuberose and Agave don't go together, and never will.

And I've grown both (agaves and tuberoses) :)

someone has already commented on such changes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPqJkG2XhQ8

I KNEW there was more to the start of WWII than just the invasion of Poland.

The truth comes out.

Changes to scientific classification and naming are based on individual interpretations with an argument behind them. In any particular instance seeking out and reading the argument can help a body decide if the change makes sense, and understand why it was proposed (and adopted by other experts in the subject area, if that has happened - there isn't always a ready acceptance, for instance the correct botanical naming of Nootka cypress became a source of discord awhile back, appears to remain unsettled at this time).