Re: Dasylirion ID

Thanks Mary for your reply. My question born from the fact that here, 
in Italy, there's a lot of confusion in the nursery trade, on the 
names of these plants. For what I know, D.serratifolium is a smallish 
plant, pratically trunkless, with a short spike too. I have not seen 
one (true) on the flesh, but Catania BG has one that fits with these 
features. Instead acrotriche is a large plant, with often decumbent 
trunks, as I have seen on very old specimens here and there in the 
south of Italy. But nurseries call it serratifolium, probably because 
for us Italian the name means with serrate (margins) leaves, thus 
easy to connect with that plant. For the same reason the blue ones 
are called glaucophyllum that means with blue leaves, but I am pretty 
sure they are wheeleri, even because old plants are that large you 
say and have that spines too. Other confusion on D.quadrangulatum or 
longissimum. I have find more then one people insisting on tell me 
there are two different species and the best of these has also spoken 
of another species D triangularis !!!! And another common mistake 
here is to call Nolina longifolia as D.longifolia (also grammatically 
wrong as it should be longifolius)

For Tom, the mix that works for you for the blue Encephalartos will 
work well for Dasylirion too. However, they don't have fleshy 
taproots but fasciculate.

Angelo