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Parry's agave has mixed fire evidence, including a very low Texas hazard rating and an elevation-qualified New Mexico recommendation.
The Sun City Texas Firewise Group gives Agave parryi a very low flammability hazard. That scale concerns the tendency to continue burning for an extended time under high heat. The score is favorable within that definition.
New Mexico's Forestry Division lists the same plant as mescal in its shrubs table. At 7,000 feet, suitability is marked unknown or doubtful. Its affirmative cells are 4,000, 5,000, and 6,000 feet; the two higher categories, 8,000 and 9,000-plus, are negative. These are planting-suitability codes; they do not measure a change in flammability with elevation.
Parry's agave is native in the southwestern and south-central United States. A homeowner can use the low hazard finding together with New Mexico's more specific planting information, while recognizing that the fire evidence remains unsettled. The favorable score does not erase the negative elevation cells in the regional guide.
New Mexico Forestry Division publishes this as its FireWise Plant List for New Mexico. FireApproved accounts for all 140 printed rows and publishes 95 exact same-rank owners already represented in the directory; 29 exact taxa without an existing record, 14 unresolved spellings or higher-rank matches, one compound taxon cell, and one species row whose only apparent owner has an infraspecific printed identity remain held. Every published row retains the source's Y, N, ?, or blank elevation cells. Publication scope does not erase those elevation limits or establish suitability for every New Mexico site.
Sun City Texas, Georgetown (TX footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2015-01-14
The guide is authored for the Sun City Texas community in Georgetown. FireApproved publishes 142 exact owners only as community-level context. It is an archived HOA exhibit with unknown rating lineage, not a current statewide Texas source or an independent Tier 1 determination.
Arizona at or above 3,000 feet (AZ footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2011-12-01
AZ1289 is explicitly limited to Arizona elevations of 3,000 feet and higher. FireApproved publishes 69 exact owners as regional Arizona context, retaining every water and elevation condition. It is never promoted to statewide low-desert guidance or an independent Tier 1 vote.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in AZ, NM, TX.
Native range
Current cited native range in AZ, NM, TX.
Introduced / established
USDA hardiness
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Native and introduced range evidence
These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and
introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval.
Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.
The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.
Where its sources say to plant it
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
Firewise Plant Guide: Yuccas/Agaves/Succulents/Cacti/Sotols [Sun City plant-table sections] (with its recommendation)
FireWise Plant List for New Mexico: PDF page 4, Shrubs, p4-r01 [nm-emnrd-firewise-table-row] (with its recommendation)
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
The table rates Agave, Parry's — Agave parryi very low for flammability hazard, defined as the ease a plant can burn at high temperatures for a prolonged time.
FireWise Plant List for New Mexico — New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, Forestry Division · 2003 Forestry Division PDF · original sourceCorroborationCompilationlineage: csu-nmsu-firewise
“FireWise Plant List for New Mexico”
Listed as Agave parryi (Mescal) in Shrubs. Printed elevation cells: 4,000 ft=Y, 5,000 ft=Y, 6,000 ft=Y, 7,000 ft=?, 8,000 ft=N, 9,000+ ft=N. Water need: VL; sun/shade: S; mature height: 2-12’; approximate bloom: Jun- Aug.
