Curtis Botanical – Plate 5030 – Desert Spoon / Green Desert Spoon / Sotol

Original antique black-and-white print from Curtis's Botanical Magazine — Plate 5030.

An extraordinary plant of the Chihuahuan and Sonoran deserts whose common name comes from the spoon-shaped base of each leaf — Indigenous peoples used these 'desert spoons' as tools and the plant as a food source for thousands of years. The fermented sap produces sotol, a traditional Mexican spirit from the same region as mezcal and tequila.

Texas, Arizona, New Mexico — a Southwest landscape and garden staple.

Uncolored plate. Condition consistent with age of volume. Each print is a unique piece of botanical history, printed on paper aged over a century.

This plate originated with the Royal Horticultural Society and passed through Wheldon & Wesley, one of the great natural history dealers of the 20th century. We came into the archive by accident and have spent the time since trying to share it as widely as we can.