101 YUCATAN TREES INDEX

MEXICAN PONYTAIL - Despeinada

Mexican Ponytail

Above, the 20-ft-tall (6m), palm-like tree in full bloom next to a bank along Mérida's Paseo de Montejo is a native Yucatec plant found in the Peninsula's more arid, scrubby parts. Northerners sometimes think it must be some kind of yucca or maybe a palm, but it's unrelated to those plant groups. It's the Mexican Ponytail, also known as the Ponytail Palm, Elephant-Foot Tree, and by many other names. It's Beaucarnea pliabilis.

Probably you are more accustomed to seeing Mexican Ponytail in pots where sometimes they produce very large, spherical, water-storing bulges at their trunk bases. Often you see them in hotel lobbies and the like. They're planted in the tropics worldwide because they are such unusual, handsome plants.

101 YUCATAN TREES INDEX