Flora of North America species comparison

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Dasylirion texanum

sotol texano, Texas sotol
Habit Plants typically small, with small crowns; trunks usually less than 0.5 m. Leaves narrow, arching gently downward, often twisting outward toward tip; blade usually shiny, bright green, 70–130 × 1–2 cm wide above broadened base, glabrous, not waxy, smooth; prickles mostly antrorse.
Inflorescences

2–4 m;

stalk 1.5–3 cm diam. at base;

branches mostly basal, erect, 2.5–6 cm;

bracts lanceolate;

fascicles of flowers condensed, 5–8 cm from base to tip;

primary axes 0.5–1 cm.
Flowers

with receptacles ca. 0.2 mm;

tepals whitish or greenish, 1.5 × 1 mm;

style ca. 0.2 mm;

stigma lobes 0.2–0.3 mm, loosely united;

pedicel 2.2–3 mm in fruit.
Capsules

ellipsoid, 5.5–6 × 4–5 mm, distal wing lobes 1–1.5 mm, evenly rounded in cross section, not indented.
2n

= 38.

Dasylirion texanum
Phenology Flowering May–Jul.
Habitat Open, rocky limestone slopes, arroyos and canyons, dry limestone hills
Elevation 600–1800 m (2000–5900 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
TX; Mexico (Coahuila)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Dasylirion texanum is often small, but can become quite large in moist situations. It is relatively homogeneous in the northeastern portion of its range in east-central Texas. In west Texas, plants are larger and have both antrorse and retrorse prickles. These have been included in D. heteracanthum I. M. Johnston, but they are probably hybrids between D. texanum and D. leiophyllum, in which the prickles are retrorse. There is little mixing of these two species except in a narrow zone extending northward through the Chisos, Davis, and Guadalupe mountains in west Texas.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 26, p. 423.
Parent taxa Agavaceae > Dasylirion
Sibling taxa
D. leiophyllum, D. wheeleri
Name authority Scheele: Linnaea 23: 140. (1850)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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