Dasylirion wheeleri
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| Dasylirion wheeleri S. Watson ex Rothrock |
Dasylirion wheeleri (Desert Spoon or Common Sotol) is a flowering plant native to arid environments of the southwestern United States, in Arizona, New Mexico and western Texas, and in northern Mexico, in Chihuahua and Sonora.
It is a moderate to slow-growing evergreen shrub with a single unbranched trunk up to 40 cm thick growing to 1.5 m tall, though often recumbent on the ground. The leaf blade is slender, 35-100 cm long, gray-green, with a toothed margin. The leaves radiate from the center of the plant's apex in all directions-(spherical). The flowering stem grows above the foliage, to a height of 5 m tall, and 3-6 cm diameter. The stem is topped by a long plume of straw-colored small flowers about 2.5 cm long with six tepals. The fruit is an oval dry capsule 5-8 mm long, containing a single seed.
[edit] Cultivation and uses
The Desert Spoon is grown as an ornamental plant, valued in xeriscaping. It can be planted any season but summer and pruned in October.
The drink sotol is made from the Desert Spoon. It was also used by the natives of the region for food and fiber.
