Species
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Dasylirion wheeleri S.Watson ex Rothr.

Wheeler sotol, desert spoon, desert-spoon, sauo

Climate known 53 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Dasylirion wheeleri is a species of flowering plant in the asparagus family (Asparagaceae), native to arid environments of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States.

Text from Wikipedia, “Dasylirion wheeleri”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Dasylirion

Dasylirion is a genus of succulent, rosette-forming plants in the Asparagaceae family, where it is included in the subfamily Convallarioideae. Most species are native to mountainous arid regions of Mexico, with some species also native to the Southwestern United States. The common name sotol is used in English and Spanish to describe various Dasylirion species, as well as giving its name to a distilled spirit made from some species of the genus.

Text from Wikipedia, “Dasylirion”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
S.Watson ex Rothr.
Native to
Arizona, New Mexico, Texas +2
Wild records
1581 in range· 866 open

At a glance

Warmest month
33°C
Jun, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
413mm/yr
7 wet months · peak Aug 84 mm (CHELSA)
Light
22–52DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, December to January and July to October in the northern hemisphere (December to January and July to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 413 mm a year, wettest August at 84 mm, driest May at 9 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 52 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -5.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Dasylirion wheeleri var. wheeleri; Dasylirion wheeleri var. wislizeni Trel.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, December to January and July to October in the northern hemisphere (December to January and July to October at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (304 mm of 413 mm) falls in December to January and July to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 17.4 °C against a yearly mean of 16.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to April and June to July.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 413 mm a year, wettest August at 84 mm, driest May at 9 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

413 mm a year at the habitat, 304 mm of it December to January and July to October. Wettest month August at 84 mm, driest May at 9 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 294 mm to 571 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 52 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 52 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 54).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -5.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -5.3 °C, the absolute minimum -13.0 °C, about 46 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 0.6 °C in January (across the envelope cells -2.1 °C to 3.5 °C), warmest day 32.9 °C in June (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -5.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 36 to 50% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 14 °C in Dec to 33 °C in Jun; mean night from 1 °C in Jan to 20 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 413 mm of rain a year, most in Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 442 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -13.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 39.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost39.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)-13.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 22–52RH 36–50 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 442 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C14 / 11–1716 / 13–1919 / 16–2224 / 21–2629 / 26–3133 / 30–3632 / 29–3531 / 27–3429 / 26–3224 / 21–2718 / 15–2114 / 10–17
Night °C1 / -2–42 / -1–54 / 2–78 / 5–1113 / 10–1618 / 15–2120 / 16–2319 / 16–2216 / 13–1911 / 8–135 / 2–81 / -2–4
Rain mm32 / 15–5128 / 13–4824 / 8–4812 / 8–189 / 6–1614 / 6–2782 / 47–12584 / 54–12043 / 33–5929 / 22–3922 / 14–3334 / 21–50
DLI24 / 22–2530 / 28–3140 / 37–4148 / 47–4952 / 51–5352 / 51–5446 / 44–4742 / 41–4339 / 38–4033 / 31–3426 / 24–2722 / 20–23
RH %49 / 46–5147 / 45–4943 / 41–4639 / 36–4236 / 34–4037 / 34–4147 / 44–5150 / 48–5447 / 45–5045 / 43–4845 / 43–4849 / 46–51

Each figure is the median across the 442 grid cells holding the 1519 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1175:1406 (31.225, -109.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -13.0 °C, 1st-percentile night -5.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 442 distinct grid cells holding the 1519 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1175:1406 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 31.00_-109.375, lapse-corrected +90 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1465 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeArizona, New Mexico, Texas, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker31.963, -110.526 · in the densest population, 997 records (63% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1581 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 866 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 18 km away. 3 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 62 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1581 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Dasylirion wheeleriDasylirion wheeleriDasylirion wheeleriDasylirion wheeleriDasylirion wheeleriDasylirion wheeleriDasylirion wheeleriDasylirion wheeleri

Photographs: (c) Ken-ichi Ueda, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) CK2AZ, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Rose Zappa, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Dasylirion wheeleri, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Ecological Relationships between Mule Deer and White‐Tailed Deer in Southeastern Arizona
Robert G. Anthony, Norman S. Smith (1977) · Ecological Monographs
Vegetation Patterns as Affected by Aspect and Elevation in Small Desert Mountains
Ricardo Mata‐González, Rex D. Pieper, Manuel Cárdenas (2002) · The Southwestern Naturalist
Optimization of the enzyme-assisted extraction of fructans from the wild sotol plant ( Dasylirion wheeleri )
Miguel Ángel Sánchez‐Madrigal, Sara L. Viesca-Nevárez, Armando Quintero‐Ramos, Carlos A. Amaya‐Guerra (2018) · Food Bioscience
Climatic Change and Habitat Availability for Three Sotol Species in México: A Vision towards Their Sustainable Use
Jorge Luis Becerra-López, Rigoberto Rosales Serna, Muhammad Ehsan, Jesús Salvador Becerra-López (2020) · Sustainability
A Preliminary List of Bryophytes from the Organ Mountains, New Mexico
Lloyd R. Stark, Richard C. Castetter (1982) · The Bryologist
Sustainable Industrial Sotol Production in Mexico—A Life Cycle Assessment
Juan Manuel Madrid Solórzano, Jorge Luis García-Alcaráz, E. Martínez, Julio Blanco‐Fernández (2022) · Agriculture
Dasylirion wheeleri Var. Durangense: A New Combination in the Nolinaceae
Joseph E. Laferrière (1991) · Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden
Plant Use in Mountain Pima Holiday Decorations
Joseph E. Laferrière, Willard Van Asdall (1991) · KIVA
EFFECT OF ULTRASOUND ON THE CARBOHYDRATE EXTRACTION FROM SOTOL PLANTS (Dasylirion wheeleri) AT DIFFERENT POWERS AND TEMPERATURES
Miguel Ángel Sánchez‐Madrigal, Beltrán-Verdugo, V.R., Armando Quintero‐Ramos, Carlos A. Amaya‐Guerra (2017) · Redalyc (Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México)
Optimization of enzyme-assisted ultrasound extraction of polysaccharides from wild sotol (Dasylirion wheeleri) plants using response surface methodology
Miguel Ángel Sánchez-Madrigal, Carlos A. Amaya-Guerra, Carmen O. Meléndez-Pizarro, Martha G. Ruiz-Gutiérrez (2026) · Applied Food Research

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Dasylirion 22 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 21 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.