Hardiness zones
Sunset 11-24
USDA 7-10 (arid regions only)
Landscape Use: Specimen, textural accent, barrier, container plant for patios, xeric, oasis, or even mesic landscape design motifs
Form & Character: Large, evergreen shrub, calescent, agave like, rosetting and rounded, refined.
Growth Habit: Slow, non-clumping, trunk to 10' to 12' in height with 6' to 8' spread, flower spike to 15' to 20'.
Foliage/texture: Foliage densely rosetting to clumping, long, very narrow (almost linear), dull to dark green to 3' long, leaves with unarmed simple margins; fine texture.
Flowers & fruits: Dioecious, cream-colored flowers, plume-like, on a 10' to 15' stalk, plants will only flower after the 7-10 years and then will not flower every year thereafter.
Seasonal color: Flowers stalks in later spring to summer.
Temperature: Tolerant, some heat stress above 110oF. More cold tolerant than D. wheeleri.
Light: Full sun
Soil: Well drained
Watering: Somewhat drought tolerant, some watering during the summer is needed if sotol is planted in the lower desert urban landscapes, otherwise none. It's best to irrigate sparingly if at all during the winter. In the lower desert, sotol will typically show significant leaf marginal tip necrosis.
Pruning: Minimual, only the occassional complete of older dieing or dead leaves lest the trunk will form a grass skirt.
Propagation: Usually propagated sexually by seed but germination and establishment are slow.
Disease and pests: Root rot might occur if soil is chronically wet.
Additional comments: Mexican grass tree is a beautiful and noble plant for Phoenix landscapes. Like its counterpart D. wheeleri, Mexican grass tree is often misused by landscape designers in the Phoenix area, arranged in tight groupings without sufficient space for them to grow and spread naturally to full maturity. The specific epithet for this plant in reference books has gone back and forth between D. longissimum and D. quadrangulatum.