Beaucarnea gracilis is a species of flowering plant in the Asparagaceae family. It is native to Puebla, and northern parts of Oaxaca, in Mexico, where it is endemic to the Tehuacán Valley matorral.[4][5] It grows primarily in the seasonally dry tropical biome.
It is an arborescent species, and plants can form large trees over time.[5][6] It has a stem that is basally enormously swollen and circular in cross-section, with modest branching, growing up to 12m tall.[7]
The specific name gracilis means thin, presumably referring to the leaves which, as in Beaucarnea recurvata, are long and thin (30-60cm long and 4-7mm wide), but in this species they are erect, very glaucous and with margins minutely but sharply roughened.[7]
As with many species of Beaucarnea, Beaucarnea gracilis has been placed in different genera, including Nolina (as Nolina gracilis),[8] and Dasylirion (as Dasylirion gracile);[9] but modern research supports Beaucarnea existing as a genus, with Beaucarnea gracilis accepted as a species of Beaucarnea.[10]
^Espejo Serena, A. & López-Ferrari, A.R. (1996). Las Monocotiledóneas Mexicanas una Sinopsis Florística 1(6): 1-116. Consejo Nacional de la Flora de México, México D.F.
^Rojas-Piña, Vanessa; Olson, Mark E.; Alvarado-Cárdenas, Leonardo O.; Eguiarte, Luis E. (2014-12-22). "Molecular phylogenetics and morphology of Beaucarnea (Ruscaceae) as distinct from Nolina, and the submersion of Calibanus into Beaucarnea". Taxon. 63 (6): 1193–1211. doi:10.12705/636.31.
Further reading
The Complete Encyclopedia of Succulents by Zdenek Jezek and Libor Kunte
