TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico – Officials say the seizure of 1,639 coca plants in southern Mexico marks the first known instance of the raw ingredient of cocaine being cultivated in the country.

So the way that looks is that you've got people who are developing banks of seeds of agave plants that will produce mezcal, and these are plants that basically, at this point, don't exist in the wild.

Even in southern Mexico, the phenomenon goes by its English name: El boom de mezcal. Much of that boom is in espadín, an easy-to-cultivate agave that matures in seven to nine years.

A rare flowering plant found only in one spot in southern New Mexico should be granted federal protection, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday. The agency is proposing to list the ...

There are 24 known locations where the plant grows in Texas and Mexico, though a federal scientist noted that there may be more populations that have not yet been observed.

Federal regulators proposed protections for an imperiled New Mexico plant in the New Mexico’s southwest bootheel region as the State sought stricter rules to prevent the extinction of its rarest ...

They cultivate the plant in secret places and collect fresh leaves the day of the ritual. Patients must maintain a strict diet, abstaining from sex, alcohol, and certain foods for several weeks.