Plant: perennial scapose herb; Rosettes single or infrequently caespitose, open, ca. 0.5-1.2 m high, 0.8-1 m broad Leaves: highly variable, numerous, 40-82 cm long, (4.1-)4.8-11 cm wide, broadest at middle, lanceolate, acuminate, spreading-ascending, rigid, deeply concave towards apex, thick and convex towards base, glaucous gray to yellowish green to deep green, the margins straight to repand; teeth variable, brown to gray, the larger ones 4-10 mm long, straight, reflexed, or deflexed, firmly attached, (0.8-)1-3(-4) cm apart; interstitial teeth (0-)1-3(-5) on upper - of leaf margin; terminal spine 2.5-4.5 cm long, slender, openly grooved above, brown to gray, decurrent for 5-15 cm to upper teeth Inflorescence: with scape 4-7 m tall, narrowly to broadly paniculate, of (6-)11-17 lateral ascending branchlets in upper 1/4 of flowering stalk, the longer ones 20-39 cm long, the shorter ones 3.2-12.2 cm long, the stalk thick, green to glaucous Flowers: congested in umbels, 35-67 mm long, durable, cylindric-urceolate, with a strong sweet-musky fragrance at anthesis; tepals erect, clasping the filaments, thick, drying leathery, persisting erect, unequal, the outer ones 8-18 mm high, 5-10 mm broad, the inner ones 6-14 mm high, 3-9 mm broad, golden-yellow with brown-corneous hooded tips; filaments 32-55 mm long, inserted at 2 levels, 3-10 mm and 4-11 mm above base of tube, light yellow, the anthers 7-17(-20) mm long, yellow; ovary 14-33 mm long, slender, rounded, with short, constricted neck 0.2- 4(-8) mm long, lime-green, the style 21-52 mm long when stigma is receptive, light yellow; floral tube 6-18 mm long, (7-)12-21(-25) mm wide, bulging somewhat at base of tepals, light lime-green Fruit: a loculicidal capsule, congested, 35-50 mm long, 13-15 mm broad, linear oblong to obovoid, apiculate; SEEDS black, 6-7 mm long, 4.5-5 mm broad, with marginal wing Misc: Open rocky slopes in high desertscrub, chaparral, and juniper grassland; 700-2150 m (2300-7000 ft); May-Aug REFERENCES: Hodgson, Wendy. 1999. Agavaceae. Ariz. – Nev. Acad. Sci. 32(1).