This species is named in honor of botanist Reid Moran (1916-2010) who was curator of botany at the San Diego Natural History Museum from 1957 to 1982. He is known for his many contributions to the study of the Crassulaceae and the flora of Baja California. He made the first botanical collections of this agave from the east slope of the southern Sierra San Pedro Martir. The species is distinguished by its solitary rosettes 1 – 1.5 m tall and 2 m across of rigid, straight, lance-linear leaves. It resembles A. deserti subsp. pringlei which occurs in the same region but offsets and tends to grow at higher elevations in chaparral, while A. moranii is a desert species. Inflorescences can also be distinctive, exhibiting a series of prominent bracts on a swollen portion of the inflorescence just below the flowering panicle. According to Gentry, this is the result of initiation of the inflorescence in the fall, arrested growth over winter, then a second elongation with the warmer days of spring. This is another offering in collaboration with the Desert Botanical Garden of tissue-cultured plants of HBG 119482, DBG 1991-0471-02, Gentry & McGill 23287, collected Jun 13, 1973, 2 – 3 mi (ca. 3 – 5 km) southeast of Agua Caliente, Baja California, Mexico. $8.
Published in the Cactus and Succulent Journal, Vol. 91 (2), Summer 2019