Pronounciation: Da-sa-LIR-ee-on WHEEL-er-eye

Hardiness zones
Sunset 11-13
USDA 8-10 (arid regions only)

Landscape Use: Specimen, accent, barrier, xeric or desert landscape

Form & Character: Large, rounded, stout, agave-like, airy and open, rigid, dangerous, xeric.

Growth Habit: Evergreen, fibrous, perennial monocot shrub, upright, slow growth rate to an eventual 7-feet tall with a strong stout and fibrous trunk. Flower spikes extend upwards to 15 feet in height. Occassionally branches after flowering.

Foliage/Texture: Long, gray, somewhat recurved and twisting, strap-like leaves with dangerous, prominent marginal spines appressed forward, leaf sheath is in the form of spoon that was once used by native Americans as such; medium coarse texture.

Flowers & Fruits: Dioecious cream-colored flowers, plume-like, on 10 to 15 feet stalk, plants will only flower after the 7 to 10 years and then will not flower every year thereafter. Flowering also results in cessation of terminal meristem and induction of usually a single upper lateral meristem. Unlike many agaves, desert spoon doesn't die after flowering. Flowers strongly attract bees.

Seasonal Color: Flowers stalks in later spring to summer during thoses rare years that desert spoon blooms.

Temperature: Tolerant of Phoenix heat and cold, but some heat stress above 115^oF if not irrigated.

Light: Full sun

Soil: Tolerant, but prefers well drained.

Watering: Somewhat drought tolerant in Phoenix, meaning 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: Sotol plants do not naturally shed their leaves which are persistent and form a kind of dead "skirt" much like Chamaerops humilis or Washingtonia robusta. With that in mind, the only pruning that a sotol specimen ever needs is the elective removal of senescent leaves. It's a delicate and deliberate operation, because sotol with its armed leaf margins will fight back and draw blood. Wear protective gear, e.g. long sleeve shirts, leather gloves, and eye protection.

A special request: PLEASE DO NOT SHEAR! Some amatuer landscape maintenance 'professionals' (aka the 'Horticultural clods of Phoenix' or 'Hort clods' for short, i.e. persons wearing uniforms driving trucks with misleading names on them) around the Phoenix area have tried this with the result being ridiculous looking plants that look either like Alfalfa of the Little Rascals or a death mop. This is because sotol has a single apical meristem. Another favorite pruning ploy by the 'Hort clods' is to create the 'pineapple look' by 'skinning' older leaves to the trunk much like is done when pruning local palms - the result is a landscape that has the look and feel of a Marvel comics clip!

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: Sotol (and its Dasylirion cousins) is a plant that is frequently misused by landscape architects (LAs) in the Phoenix area, arranged in plantings too close together or with limited space in which to grow and spread naturally. And so what does this indicate? It's clear......many LAs don't know their plants! If you're an LA and are reading this, then note this.....sotol may look architectually cute in a 5-gallon nursery container, but as a mature specimen in the landscape it is HUGE! So design and plant accordingly.

Ethnobotanical tidbits: Sotol leaves were used by Native Americans for thatching and making baskets. An alcoholic beverage called 'sotol' is extracted from trunk.

Two Dasylirion landscape cousins: Dasylirion acrotrichum (green sotol) is a 'green-leaf' species of sotol which gives a slightly different accent effect. Dasylirion quadrangulatum (Mexican grass tree) has stiff, narrow green leaves with smooth margins, more fine textured and wide spreading than others.