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Green sotol

Dasylirion leiophyllum

Also called Smooth Sotol

Green sotol
Photo: Stan Shebs, CC BY-SA 3.0

Green sotol is a desert succulent shrub from the southwestern US and northern Mexico, with a short trunk and long, narrow, spiny-edged green leaves. It thrives in full sun, sharp drainage and minimal water.

Family
Asparagaceae (Asparagus family)
Grows as
Shrub, Succulent
Light
Full sun
Water
Water deeply and infrequently, letting the soil dry out completely between waterings.
Soil
Gritty, fast-draining mix such as cactus or desert soil with added sand or grit.
Temperature
18–35 °C; protect below about -10 °C, although it tolerates some frost once established.
How easy
Easy
Native range
S. New Mexico to Mexico (E. Chihuahua, W. Coahuila)
Climate
desert or dry shrubland

About

Dasylirion leiophyllum is a species of flowering plant in the asparagus family known by the common names green sotol, smooth-leaf sotol, and smooth sotol. It is native to North America, where it occurs in Chihuahua and Coahuila in Mexico and New Mexico and western Texas in the United States. It was first collected by Valery Havard in 1880 and was described by William Trelease in 1911.

This plant is a succulent shrub with a trunk up to a meter long growing erect or reclining. The shiny, bright green, fibrous leaves are narrow, long, and pointed, growing up to 80 centimeters long by 2.5 wide. The margins have prickles. Mature specimens may wear a sheath of dead leaves from previous seasons around the trunk. The inflorescence is about 30 centimeters long and is borne atop a stalk which can reach five meters in height.

Other Dasylirion plants

Great Desert Spoon · Durango Sotol · Mexican Grass Tree · Dasylirion lucidum · Dasylirion serratifolium · Texas sotol · Common sotol · Sotols

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Dasylirion leiophyllum 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.

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