This choicest of medium-sized agaves has a glaucous gray, artichoke-like rosette, with elegant bud imprints and contrasting black terminal spines—features found to varying degrees in other varieties of A. parryi (and a few other species as well) though not with the same broad-leaved compactness. In addition, the bi-colored inflorescences are unusual among agaves, with orange buds opening yellow (see accompanying photos of a plant flowering in Jean Russom’s La Cañada, CA garden). The plant will offset, but too slowly to satisfy demand, and open-pollinated seedlings rarely share the best features of the parent. Thanks to the tissue culture lab of Rancho Soledad Nursery in Rancho Santa Fe, CA, we are able to offer plants of the genuine variety, supplemented by a few offsets dug here by Kirby Weise. HBG 23389, H. S. Gentry 10566, the clonotype, collected June 8, 1951, in oak-juniper woodland, ca. 22.5 km W of Sombrerete along Hwy. 45 in the Sierra Papanton, Durango (near the Zacatecas border), Mexico. $10.
Published in the Cactus and Succulent Journal, Vol. 76 (2), March - April, 2004