Why Does Agave Utahensis Love Limestone?

Calciphile (or calcicole) plants are plants that prefer (in some cases require) soils rich in calcium carbonate. Agave utahensis is one such plant, as it grows almost exclusively on limestone based soils. For more than a hundred years, since 1918, a ton of research has been done trying to solve what botanists call the “calcicole problem,” that is, trying to understand what makes some plants calcium loving, and some calcium hating.Progress has been made, but the question isn’t entirely solved even today.