One of the distinguishing features is that the point on the tip, which is typically dark tan, brown, or black, is darker than the leaf.

The Huachuca variety grows in a rosette pattern as large as 2½ feet in diameter.

Parry's agave is evergreen and monocarpic—i.e., mature agaves produce a twelve-foot stalk studded with bright, yellow blooms before the plant then dies, as all energetic resources are put into the inflorescence, flowering, and pollination.

Nonetheless, A. parryi is known as one of the most prolific species of Agave, and can be easily propagated by removing the side shoots with a sterile, sharp knife, or by digging-up any rhizomatous plantlets that have grown further away from the main plant.

This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.