Ponytail Palm

Ponytail palm is a grass-like evergreen with a large, bulbous base, long, swollen trunk, and palm-like features. It grows to heights of thirty feet or more and twelve feet wide. With age, the trunk may develop a few branches. In the Southwest deserts, it grows much smaller. The ponytail palm produces narrow, bright green, slender leaves that grow in dense, mop-like, long, showy clusters, forming a tight rosette.

A distinctive plant, ponytail palm has a greatly swollen trunk base (sometimes to seven feet across) that narrowly tapers and eventually branches in older specimens. The dark green leaves, up to five feet long and 3/4 of an inch wide, are produced in tufts clustered at the tips of branches.