PLANT: Rosettes mostly single, compact. LEAVES: 25-60 cm long, 4.5-10 cm wide, lanceolate, moderately acuminate, light green to light glaucous gray; teeth friable; terminal spine subulate, 3-4 cm long. INFLORESCENCE: with scape 4-6 m tall, narrow-paniculate, of 8-15 short lateral branchlets in upper  of flowering stalk. FLOWERS: in small clusters; ovary greenish; floral tube (3-)5-10 mm long; filament insertion 2.5-3.75 mm above base of tube. CAPSULES: oblong to obovate, rounded to rostrate at apex. 2n = 60. NOTES: See also parent taxon. Low desert scrub: La Paz, Maricopa, Mohave, Pima, Pinal, Yuma cos.; 350-1200 m (1180-4000 ft); May-Jul; se CA. Hybridizes with A. schottii ssp. schottii in Pima Co., and possibly A. mckelveyana in Yavapai Co. REFERENCES: Hodgson, Wendy. 1999. Agavaceae. Ariz. - Nev. Acad. Sci. 32(1).

Plants rarely with 1-3 suckers; rosettes usually solitary, compact. Leaves (20-)25-60 × 4.5-10 cm; blade greenish, lanceolate; margins undulate to crenate; apical spine 3-4 cm. Scape 4-6 m. Perianth tube funnelform, (3-)5-10 mm; filaments inserted above middle but well within tube. 2n = 60.

Flowering spring. Sandy to gravelly or rocky places in desert scrub and pinyon juniper woodlands; 300--1500 m; Ariz., Calif.; nw Mexico.

Variety simplex hybridizes with A. schottii var. schottii and possibly with A. mckelveyana.