PlantFiles: Mexican Grass Tree
Dasylirion longissimum

The leaves radiate symmetrically out of a large woody trunk that can slowly but eventually grow 6 -15 feet tall. In the summer, a nine foot tall spike of small white flowers emerge from reddish buds. Plant in full sun to light shade.

Dasylirion are closely related to Agaves and look like Nolina species. They slowly grow like a large clump of very stiff grass, eventually forming a trunk (after many many years). Native to Mexico and Arizona, these plants are incredibly drought tolerant. However, they grow faster if watered well (don't water the crown, though- rot easily). This species of Dasylirion is probably the most commonly grown in cultivation in the US. It looks a LOT like Xanthorea, the Australian grass tree (completely unrelated, though). Even the flower spikes look similar. These make great specimen plants for xeriscape gardens. Small plants are relatively inexpensive, but larger ones are a fortune. These make excellent potted specimens, and are often kept well trimmed exposing an ornamental symetrical spiral leaf-base pattern that never fails to attract comments. The leaves of this species are thin, quadrangular (one of the synonyms is quadrangularis) in cross section and long (the more shade it's in, the longer the leaves). The flowers are on tall stalks about 10'-15' above the plant, and the top 1/3-14 is the flowering section. Flowers are tan to cream in color, and if fertilized (think this takes multiple plants to fertilize these flowers- VERY attractive to bees, by the way) and, if successfully fertilized, will produce a colorful red-pink plume of tightly packed seeds where the flowers were earlier... this all happens in the fall.