Agave parryi var truncata?

Definitely a A. montana and I do not think it is of the Baccarat persuasion. I have 11 A montanas. The baccarats are more glaucous in color. The red needles are a looked for characteristic in Aloe Montana. It is a very variable species. Agave gentry grows on the same mountain ranges in mexico and, what I have heard is that they interbreed where there ranges intersect. So many of the Agave Montanas on sale have Agave gentry in the mix. I guess that they are too lazy to walk up further to pick seed. One needs to look at how the leaves recurve slightly and the color. A. Montana "baccarat" has some gentry that shows up in the glaucous coloring. Agave montana grows at a higher altitude than the Agave gentry. Saddly, Most seed for Agaves Montana are collected in the wild. The species has only recently been Identified and cultivated, so there is few or none flowering cultivated specimens. Tissue culture is being done. This last year I went on a mad search for the perfect montana. And I have many forms. Their shape that they will become will not necessarily be evident when they are small. So I am always checking their progress. They will not show red thorns when they are very young either. They start out white when they are in seedling form. I have a funny story. I picked up a tint agave that was sold as a "miniature A. utahensis". I was hoping for an A utahensis elborispina but the leaves looked a little fat and the I said , what the h*ll, and bought it. I stuck it in a Dish garden with small prickly pears from New Mexico and it molted into the fattest leafed red tipped montanna that I have. Everything was a montana last year even the ones That weren't supposed to be. The two species could not be more different. I was somewhat embarrassed that I was "taken" but then I was rewarded with the fat stalwart formed montana and I was very happy. I got 4 Agave utahensis eborispina this spring, and they are definitely what they are advertised to be , so all is well. Better than well. One thing that I noticed is that Agave Montannas have some healthy roots as a characteristic. They are often bigger than the plant, like an iceberg.

It can take more rain in the summer and it is from a cool summer area, or cooler that my Central Texas summer. It does not much like a whole bunch of humidity. Also it's cold hardiness is reduced by dampness. They are a new plant in the trade so facts are still very variable. Some people are growing them in 6b and others are killing them in in 7b so be aware that either there is cold dampness killing them off, or their is variability in the species, or people planted them out and they were not able to slowly establish hardiness before winter hit. I have heard of people growing them in mountain areas of North Carolina. In nature they grow in a arid pine forest high on a mountain in Northeast mexico just south of Monterey in Nuevo Leon. The canopy of the pines look thin so they do get sun, probably acid soil but mine will take amended alkaline. I have included my post of my many variable plants and embedded in that is a site that shows habitat. Here is a link that might be useful: Agave montana comparison

Possibly Agave parryi