Thank you Zuzu and Thijs.
This is the same database that has Agave ferdinandi-regis listed as a synonym of Agave victoriae-reginae subsp. victoriae-reginae instead of Agave nickelsiae (its current name; I suspect the other was never even a synonym, it certainly makes no logical sense).
http://www.catalogueoflife.org...
The story in detail here.
https://www.smgrowers.com/prod...
In my mind (not an expert but having studied the experts) that alone suggests the agaves are perhaps not well supervised, and advocates for informed disagreement with the designation of Agave parryi truncata as a synonym for something it is not (to my knowledge), and according to books on the subject has not been (instead it has been its own variety, Agave parryi var truncata Gentry, since at least 1982). Both of the two serious agave books published since Gentry's landmark work have confirmed this variety.
The error above also argues for disagreement with the exclusion of a naturally occurring agave hybrid from the database based on its designation as a synonym for a completely different plant. (Different to what agave growers understand when they hear Agave leopoldii, anyway.)
I am not a big fan of taxonomic authority when it proves itself mistaken.
