Beaucarnea recurvata (Ponytail palm)

Beaucarnea recurvata Lem.

Ponytail palm, elephant’s foot palm, bottle palm

Kingdom	Plantae	Plants, but not fungi, lichens, or algae
Subkingdom	Tracheobionta	Vascular plants—plants with a “circulatory system” for delivering water and nutrients
Division	Magnoliophyta	Flowering plants, also known as angiosperms
Class	Liliopsida	Monocots (plants with a single seed leaf); includes the lily family
Subclass	Liliidae	Includes lilies, orchids, and many others
Order	Asparagales	A diverse group that includes asparagus
Family	Asparagaceae	Agaves, asparagus, hyacinths, and others
Genus	Beaucarnea	For 19th century Belgian collector of succulents Jean-Baptiste Beaucarne
Species	recurvata	Curved backwards

About plant names...

The ponytail palm is not a true palm, though it is easy to understand why it is often mistaken for one. It is native to South Africa and central and southeastern Mexico.

Plants: Reaches 20-33' (6-10 m) in height, with a trunk 8-16" (20-40 cm) in diameter. Its caudex, a swelling at the base of the plant, stores water, and is the reason for the name “elephant’s foot palm.”

Leaves: Evergreen, linear, strap-shaped, 20-71" (50-180 cm) × ½-⅞" (1.5-2.5 cm), with finely serrated edges. The caudex can be as large as 9½' (3 m) in diameter.

Flowers: Only older trees (more than ten years old) produce flowers, which appear on large showy panicles 30-43" (75-110 cm) long. The panicles are large, but the flowers are tiny, ¹/₃₂" (1.5 mm) in diameter. They are greenish-white, with six tepals.

Fruits: Capsules about ⅜" (1.2 cm) long.

Edibility: Poisonous Skull & Crossbones I found this listed in the US Food and Drug Administration’s Poisonous Plant Database, though I was not able to find details about it.