DASYLIRION WHEELERI DESERT SPOON SEEDS EXOTIC SUCCULENT IN PORT ELIZABETH

Dasylirion is a genus of 17 species of grassy looking rosette plants in the family Ruscaceae, all native to northern Mexico, with three species also extending into the south-western United States. They are not grasses but are related to the Agaves. As they grow older, the bases of several species develop into a beautiful trunk. When the plants are mature they send out blooms with hundreds of greenish-white bell-shaped flowers on a tall narrow spike coming from the center of the plant. Unlike most Agaves they do not die after blooming. Most Dasylirion species are reasonably resistant to cold and drought.           Dasylirion wheeleri commonly known as Desert Spoon, Spoon Flower, or Common Sotol is a flowering plant native to arid environments of northern Mexico, in Chihuahua and Sonora and in the southwestern United States, in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, and also in New Mexico and Texas. Dasylirion wheeleri is a moderate to slow-growing evergreen shrub with a single unbranched trunk up to 40 cm thick growing to 1.5 m tall, though often recumbent on the ground. The leaf blade is slender, cm long, gray-green, with a toothed margin. The leaves radiate from the center of the plant's apex in all directions (spherical). The flowering stem grows above the foliage, to a height of 5 m tall, and 3 cm in diameter. The stem is topped by a long plume of straw-colored small flowers about 2.5 cm long with six tepals. The color of the flower determinate the gender of the plant, being mostly white colored for males and purple-pink for females plants. The fruit is an oval dry capsule 5-8 mm long, containing a single seed. D. wheeleri is grown as an ornamental plant, valued in xeriscaping. As it does not tolerate extended frosts, in temperate regions it is usually grown under glass. The drink sotol is made from the desert spoon. It was also used by the natives of the region for food and fiber. Its flower stalk can be used as a fire plow. The Tarahumara and Pima Bajo peoples of the Sierra Madre Occidental of Chihuahua weave baskets from the leaves after they strip off the spines from the leaf margins. They also employ the expanded leaf bases in making large artificial flowers as holiday decorations.