The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Beaucarnea recurvata
Also called Bottle Palm, Stripy Ponytail, Elephant Foot Tree, Ponytail, Ponytail Palm
In Singapore: Ponytail Palm, Elephant-foot Tree, Bottle Palm, 酒瓶兰 (Grown in Singapore)
Elephant's-foot is a slow-growing, drought-tolerant succulent-like plant from eastern Mexico, not a true palm, grown for its swollen water-storing base and tufts of long leaves. It is grown mainly as a houseplant or outdoors in warm, dry, frost-free climates, and it thrives with bright light and very sparing watering.
Beaucarnea recurvata, the elephant's foot or ponytail palm, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae. The species is endemic to eastern Mexico; according to IUCN it is now confined to the state of Veracruz, but Plants of the World Online also cites it as occurring in Oaxaca, Puebla, San Luis Potosí, and Tamaulipas. Despite its common name, it is not closely related to the true palms (Arecaceae). It has become popular in Europe and worldwide as an ornamental plant. There are 350-year-old Beaucarneas registered in Mexico.
Having gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit, B. recurvata is often grown as a houseplant, or an outdoor plant in subtropical climate gardens. Slow-growing and drought-tolerant, Beaucarnea recurvata is hardy to 10 °C (50 °F), grows in full sun to light shade, and requires proper soil mix to drain when watered. Overwatering fosters pests such as the mealybug and cochineal insects. If kept in regions with winter frost, it must be an indoor plant as it cannot withstand cold temperatures. To maintain its original shape, the ends of its leaves should not be snipped, and when repotted it must keep all of its roots.
Beaucarnea recurvata occurs over an altitudinal range of 200 to 900 m (660 to 2,950 ft) above sea level. It grows on rocky soils deficient in nutrients, cliffs and steep mountains, where it grows in full sun or partial shade. Its habitat is low deciduous forest, with average temperatures of 20 °C (68 °F) and an annual rainfall of 800 mm (31 in), and a well-marked dry season of between 7 and 8 months. The plants are very slow growing and very tolerant to drought.
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Beaucarnea recurvata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
