Agave parryi varieties

[Gee.S]

Agave parryi is arguably grouped into several different taxa, as follows:

A. parryi v. couesii
A. parryi v. huachucensis
A. parryi v. parryi
A. parryi v. truncata
A. parryi ssp. neomexicana

The last was considered a separate species until rather recently, and I believe we would all agree that A. parryi v. truncata is distinct from the others, particularly the Huntington clone, which dominates the commercial market. That leaves three, and those are the focus of this post.

Here are some photos we took the other day from an area generally considered v. couesii territory (the first is a fine example of classic v. couesii):


A. parryi v. couesii

A. parryi

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A. parryi

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A. parryi

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A. parryi

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Let's compare with these shots Martin took of A. parryi v. huachucensis more than 200 miles away:



We find blue, green, long-narrow, and short-wide leaved A. parryi growing more or less together all over the state, and believe the distinctions between v. couesii, v. huachucensis, and v. parryi far too subjective to hold taxonomic water. Just my opinion, but other than v. truncata and ssp. neomexicana, Agave parryi is Agave parryi. Any and all supporting or opposing argument welcome.

[Jkwinston]

Here are some of my favourite A parryi. I am not sure that you can easily assemble them into one group, in the way you would like. At the moment, I have problems sorting the regular A parryi group because of my limited practical experience of observing them in habitat. But I feel that the 'couesi', the 'truncata', and the neomexicana, definitely needs to stand on their own, because of the distintive character and appearance. I do not know the 'huachucensis' well enough to offer an opinion of its need to be independently named. But the collection I visited outside Tucson was quite impressive. I would cetainly agree that the importance of that collection has a lot to do with its location, and probably that is the reason for its name. Generally, it is bit too simplistic to state that a parryi is a parry, and ignore the history of its location, and habitat. Jkw

Malaga

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HBG

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HBG

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HBG

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HBG

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HBG

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[Gee.S]

Here are some of my favourite A parryi. I am not sure that you can easily assemble them into one group, in the way you would like. At the moment, I have problems sorting the regular A parryi group because of my limited practical experience of observing them in habitat. But I feel that the 'couesi', the 'truncata', and the neomexicana, definitely needs to stand on their own, because of the distintive character and appearance. I do not know the 'huachucensis' well enough to offer an opinion of its need to be independently named. But the collection I visited outside Tucson was quite impressive. I would cetainly agree that the importance of that collection has a lot to do with its location, and probably that is the reason for its name. Generally, it is bit too simplistic to state that a parryi is a parry, and ignore the history of its location, and habitat. Jkw

Help me out here. I stated in the OP that we have seen all three forms growing together in several places across central Arizona, including the v. huachucensis look-alikes pictured above (and growing alongside the v. couesii plant pictured above), growing some 200 miles out of "range". How does that translate to "ignore the history of its location"?