Ponytail Palm

Ponytail Plant (Beaucarnea) Beaucarnea recurvata is popularly known both as a ponytail plant and an elephant foot tree, which is not to say that it looks like an elephant with a ponytail. The two names are descriptive of the plant at different ages. When the plant is young the bulbous root protrudes above the soil line, sporting a fountain of grassy leaves tightly clenched at the base: hence, ponytail. As the plant matures the ponytail foliage arches over the rim of the pot, ending with gentle waves at the tips of the Leaves, and the basal bulb grows and takes on the color, appearance, and texture of an elephant’s foot, which accounts for the second nickname. In their Mexican homeland, pony tail plants grow to be some 30 feet tall, and each grassy leaf 6 feet long, but the tallest houseplant version I’ve ever seen was only a shade over 5 feet, and it had been growing for years in a surroundings. Most indoor plants are less than 2 feet tall.

This is a very easy-to-grow houseplant, provided it’s given enough sunshine. If it gets less than half days of sun, the leaves will be pale, weak, and floppy, and eventually the plant will die. If you notice these problems starting, and suddenly move the plant into brighter sun, though, it may actually suffer sunburn; so move it gradually, over a period of seven weeks, to a brighter location. Given the right amount of sunshine, ponytail plants can survive inattention. They withstand night temperatures between 40 and 56 degrees and days as high as 90 degrees or more without suffering at all. They’re succulents, and in their native location in the deserts of Mexico, their basal bulb serves as a water holding reservoir so give them a chance to dry out a bit between deep waterings. They make a single flush of growth in the spring, and then consolidate that growth during the rest of the year, so I only feed them once, in the early spring, with any houseplant fertilizer. They grow quickly if they’re repotted into larger containers every spring, and they Mow down if they’re left in the same pot. They live practically forever.

As for troubles, they don’t have many. I’ve never seen an infested or sick ponytail plant. Sometimes the tips of the leaves yellow a bit, but I just cut off the dry part of the leaf, and prune the remaining green part to a new slender tip.

 

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