Smooth Sotol

Appearance

This plant is a succulent shrub with a trunk up to a meter long growing erect or reclining. The shiny, bright green, fibrous leaves are narrow, long, and pointed, growing up to 80 centimeters long by 2.5 wide. The margins have prickles. Mature specimens may wear a sheath of dead leaves from previous seasons around the trunk. The inflorescence is about 30 centimeters long and is borne atop a stalk which can reach five meters in height. The species is dioecious, with male and female reproductive structures on separate individuals. The many tiny flowers have whitish or greenish tepals about 2 millimeters in length. The fruit is a three-winged capsule under a centimeter in length. The plants reproduce by seed and vegetatively by sprouting from buds located at the leaf bases.

Habitat

This plant is native to the Chihuahuan Desert where it is dominant in a number of plant communities, often occurring with lechuguilla and walnut. It grows in woodlands and desert grasslands, often on calcareous substrates, and generally only in dry areas. Other plant species in the habitat may include prickly pear, yucca, nolina, Pinchot juniper, wavyleaf oak, skeleton goldeye, curlyleaf muhly, grama grasses, threeawns, and slim tridens.

Mature individuals of this species can ignite and burn for hours if hit by lightning. Fire can then spread through the habitat if the burning top of the plant falls off and rolls down a hill. After the plant burns it can sometimes resprout from the buds at the leaf bases.