Encyclopedia of Stanford Trees, Shrubs, and Vines

Dasylirion wheeleri. DESERT SPOON. Southwestern United States, Mexico
AGAVACEAE (Agave family)

Usually considered to be an agave, this plant is now treated as belonging to the Nolinaceae by the Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, Arizona. It appears as a mass of impenetrable, 3-foot, swordlike leaves tapering from half an inch to zero with wicked thorns every quarter inch. Each leaf terminates in a stem-clasping spoon. A specimen growing in the inner southwest island in the Inner Quad may be an original planting from 1890.

Illustrations (links open new windows): gallery

Additions/Revisions: This may be the same plant reported by Wilson as D. glaucophyllum growing in the old Sequoia Gardens. He estimated it (prior to 1938) about 25 years old with a five-foot trunk, about its maximun height. D. glaucophyllum, another Mexican Dasylirion in cultivation, also has blue-green leaves, slighly narrower than D. wheeleri. The trunk can be erect or procumbent, the leaves .9-3 cm. wide. In ours, the leaves at their widest are about 15 mm. (Albert Wilson (1938) Distintive Trees, Shrubs, and Vines in the Gardens of the San Francisco Peninsula.)

Name derivation, genus | species From the Greek dasys (thick) and lirion (lily), referring to the thick stems and lily-like flowers | Named for George Montague Wheeler, 19th century surveyor and director of U.S. Army surveys of the Western U.S.; glaucophyllum: Blue or greyish/bluish leaves; having bloom on the leaves (etymologies courtesy of The Plants Database)

Related material: Inner Quad Tree Map

Botanical name index | Common name index | Family
Trees.Stanford.edu home