Dasylirion leiophyllum hybridizes with Dasylirion texanum where their ranges overlap[].
Specimens with mixed prickle curvature have been treated as Dasylirion heteracanthum, but on the whole these resemble Dasylirion leiophyllum, and so Dasylirion heteracanthum is reduced to synonomy here[].

Common Name:

General Information

Dasylirion leiophyllum is an evergreen, succulent perennial plant producing an erect or reclining trunk up to 100cm long upon which there is a rosette of prickly leaves that can each be around 90 - 110cm long and 20 - 30mm wide. The plant usually flowers annually, producing a flowering stem that can be up to 5 metres long.

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Southern N. America - southern New Mexico, southwest Texas, northeast Mexico

Habitat

Gravelly limestone and igneous slopes, bajadas, canyons, and arroyos of mountains; at elevations from 1,200 - 1,800 metres[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Evergreen Shrub
Height	2.00 m
Pollinators	Bees, Insects
Cultivation Status	Wild

Cultivation Details

Not known

Edible Uses

The spongy interior of the trunks, as well as the leaf bases, is rich in sugars and has been found to be an excellent food, especially in time of need. The plants were formerly much used for food by the natives of the arid regions, and are still so used to some extent[].
The leaves are trimmed off the plant and the remaining head is roasted or boiled. The sweet pith and the leaf bases can then be eaten[]. Traditionally, the heads were often baked for about 24 hours in pits dug in the ground[].
Once roasted, the trunks can then be fermented and distilled in order to obtain a highly esteemed intoxicating drink known as ‘sotol’, which is a potent, colourless beverage of penetrating odour and peculiar taste[, ]. The alcohol has been extracted from sotol plants upon a commercial scale[].

Medicinal

None known

Other Uses

The tough leaves contain a fibre suitable for making rough cordage. This fibre also seems to be suitable for the manufacture of paper[, ].
The leaves are often used in weaving, for making baskets, rough hats, mats, handicrafts etc.[, ].
The leaves are also much used for thatching[].

When one of the plants, covered with the dead leaves, is set on fire it will burn for some time, and the burned stumps are a familiar sight in regions where the plants occur. The leaf bases remaining on such burned plants, when removed from the trunk, make very satisfactory beds upon camping expeditions, for they are elastic and not uncomfortably hard[].

The trunks are used frequently in constructing traditional houses[].
The trunks are used for fuel[].

Propagation

Seed - sow spring in a greenhouse. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and grow them on in the greenhouse for at least their first winter. Plant them out into their permanent positions in late spring or early summer, after the last expected frosts.