Species
+

Hesperaloe funifera (K.Koch) Trel.

New Mexico False Yucca, giant hesperaloe

Climate known 9 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Hesperaloe funifera is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae. It is native to Texas and northern Mexico, but sometimes cultivated as an ornamental elsewhere.

Text from Wikipedia, “Hesperaloe funifera”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Hesperaloe

Hesperaloe is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae. It contains perennial yucca-like plants with long, narrow leaves produced in a basal rosette and flowers borne on long panicles or racemes. The species are native to the arid parts of Texas in the United States and Mexico and are sometimes cultivated as xerophytic ornamental plants.

Text from Wikipedia, “Hesperaloe”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
(K.Koch) Trel.
Native to
Texas, Mexico Northeast
Wild records
71 in range· 45 open

At a glance

Warmest month
33°C
Jun, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
457mm/yr
7 wet months · peak Sep 79 mm (CHELSA)
Light
24–43DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 457 mm a year, wettest September at 79 mm, driest November at 14 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 43 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -1.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Agave funifera (K.Koch) Lem.; Hesperaloe davyi Baker f.; Hesperaloe funifera subsp. funifera; Yucca funifera (Lem.) Lem., 1866; Yucca funifera K.Koch.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (346 mm of 457 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.7 °C against a yearly mean of 21.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 457 mm a year, wettest September at 79 mm, driest November at 14 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

457 mm a year at the habitat, 346 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 79 mm, driest November at 14 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 278 mm to 683 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 43 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 43 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -1.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -1.1 °C, the absolute minimum -8.0 °C, about 6 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 42.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 7.6 °C in January (across the envelope cells 5.7 °C to 10.2 °C), warmest day 32.5 °C in June (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -1.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 52 to 58% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 20 °C in Jan to 33 °C in Jun; mean night from 8 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 457 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 53 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -8.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 42.3 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost42.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)-8.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 24–43RH 52–58 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 53 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C20 / 17–2223 / 19–2527 / 22–2830 / 26–3232 / 27–3433 / 27–3533 / 26–3632 / 26–3629 / 24–3227 / 23–2924 / 21–2621 / 17–22
Night °C8 / 6–1010 / 7–1213 / 10–1516 / 13–1820 / 15–2121 / 16–2422 / 16–2522 / 16–2520 / 15–2217 / 13–1812 / 9–148 / 6–11
Rain mm21 / 14–3015 / 7–2515 / 7–3031 / 14–5250 / 28–7855 / 34–8162 / 44–9657 / 35–8079 / 46–15843 / 27–6214 / 9–2415 / 10–23
DLI25 / 21–2730 / 26–3338 / 33–4142 / 38–4543 / 40–4743 / 42–4643 / 41–4542 / 40–4234 / 34–3631 / 27–3326 / 23–2924 / 20–26
RH %54 / 51–5853 / 49–5752 / 46–5652 / 46–5654 / 49–5855 / 51–6055 / 52–6054 / 52–6058 / 55–6357 / 54–6155 / 51–5854 / 51–58

Each figure is the median across the 53 grid cells holding the 69 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1226:1584 (28.675, -100.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -8.0 °C, 1st-percentile night -1.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 42.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 53 distinct grid cells holding the 69 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1226:1584 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 28.50_-100.625, lapse-corrected -16 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 294 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeTexas, Mexico Northeast
Kew's description“perennial” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker26.39, -101.35 · in the densest population, 42 records (59% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 71 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 45 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 60 km away. 4 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 2 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 71 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Hesperaloe funiferaHesperaloe funiferaHesperaloe funiferaHesperaloe funiferaHesperaloe funiferaHesperaloe funiferaHesperaloe funiferaHesperaloe funifera

Photographs: (c) José Gerardo Velasco, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (4); (c) Francisco Martínez González, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); (c) Leticia Jiménez Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Hesperaloe funifera, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Effect of steam explosion and enzymatic pre-treatments on pulping and bleaching of Hesperaloe funifera
Raquel Martín‐Sampedro, María E. Eugenio, Juan C. Villar (2012) · Bioresource Technology
Exploitation of hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin from Hesperaloe funifera
Rafael Sánchez, Alejandro Rodríguez, J.C. Garcı́a, Antonio Rosal (2010) · Bioresource Technology
Soda pulp and fuel gases synthesis from Hesperaloe funifera
Rafael Sánchez, Alejandro Rodríguez, Ana Requejo, Ana Ferrer (2010) · Bioresource Technology
Chromosome and Hybridization Studies of Agave
Donald J. Pinkava, Mark A. Baker (1985) · UA Campus Repository (The University of Arizona)
Use of Hesperaloe funifera for the production of paper and extraction of lignin for synthesis and fuel gases
Rafael Sánchez, Alejandro Rodríguez, E. Navarro, Juan A. Conesa (2010) · Biomass and Bioenergy
Hesperaloe funifera - an excellent reinforcement fiber for mechanical paper grades.
Martin Fairbank, Richard Detrick (2000) · TAPPI Journal
Comparison of the Heating Values of Various Types of Fuel from Non-Wood Raw Materials
Z. González, M.J. Feria, Fátima Vargas, Alejandro Rodríguez (2012) · American journal of environmental engineering
EVALUATION OF THE POTENTIAL OF ALTERNATIVE VEGETABLE MATERIALS FOR PRODUCTION OF PAPER THROUGH KRAFT PROCESSES
Juan Domínguez‐Robles, Eduardo Espinosa Víctor, María del Valle Palenzuela, María E. Eugenio (2020) · Cellulose Chemistry and Technology
Simulation of Hesperaloe funifera diethanolamine pulping by polynomial and neural fuzzy models
Alejandro Rodríguez, Rafael Sánchez, Ana Ferrer, Ana Requejo (2010) · Process Safety and Environmental Protection
Integrated utilization of the main components of Hesperaloe funifera
Rafael Sánchez, Alejandro Rodríguez, E. Navarro, A M Requejo (2011) · Biochemical Engineering Journal

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Hesperaloe 7 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answerapi.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 13 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.