Plants robust, with large crowns, to 40 cm diam.; trunks to 1.5 m, usually reclining. Leaves stout, rigid; blade whitish or bluish green, 35-100 × 2-3 cm wide above broadened base, densely waxy-glaucous, papillose, dull; prickles all antrorse. Inflorescences often massive, to 5 m; stalk 3-6 diam. at base; branches lateral, pendent in fruit, 3-10 cm; bracts wedge-shaped, attenuate; fascicles of flowers spreading, 10-20 cm from base to tip; primary axes 4-14 cm. Flowers with receptacles 0.2-0.5 mm; tepals sometimes tinged purple, 2.4 × 1-1.5 mm; style 0.2-0.3 mm, becoming swollen and golden brown in fruit; stigma lobes 0.4 mm; pedicel 3-3.5 mm in fruit. Capsules broadly obovoid or rounded in cross section, not indented, 5-8 × 4-5(-7) mm; distal wing lobes 2-2.5 mm, often indented on side. 2n = 38. Flowering mostly late May--Jun. Open, rocky slopes; 1200--1900 m; Ariz., N.Mex., Tex.; Mexico (Chihuahua, Sonora). Morphologically, Dasylirion wheeleri is fairly uniform within its range in the United States, with some minor variation in fruit size and receptacle length.

Plant: Rosette herb 40-100 cm tall, flowering scape 3-6 m tall Leaves: leaves 40-70 cm long, 1 cm wide, spines on margins numerous Flowers: male and female flowers on separate plants, in large terminal spike-like panicles Fruit: a three-winged capsule.