Flora Fact

Candle Plant

Desert-dwelling candelilla protects itself with a useful coating of wax.

by Dyanne Fry Cortez

In the desert landscapes of Trans-Pecos Texas, candelilla is a common plant. Its bare gray-green stems, each about the width of a pencil, grow in clumps on rocky ridges and gravelly slopes. Candelilla bushes are typically 1 to 2 feet high, occasionally reaching 3 feet.

They’ll bloom after a good rain — but the pinkish flowers, clustered on the upper stems, are barely an eighth-inch in diameter. A hiker might notice them; at highway speed, they tend to blur into the scenery.

This hardy plant (Euphorbia antisyphilitica) is a cousin to the poinsettia, which surrounds its own small flowers with large, brightly colored leaves. But large leaves are a liability in the desert. Candelilla leaves are tiny, appearing only on new growth. They soon drop off, letting chlorophyll in the stems do the work of converting sunlight to energy. To minimize water loss, those stems coat themselves with a hard wax.

Humans have found many uses for that wax. Harder than beeswax and highly water resistant, it has found its way into crayons, candles, shoe polish, floor polish, lipstick, chewing gum, electrical insulation, carbon paper and vinyl records. During our two world wars, it was in high demand for waterproofing soldiers’ tents and tarps.

For much of the 20th century, candelilla wax was a leading industry in the Big Bend area. Factories were built at Glenn Springs (now a historic site in Big Bend National Park) and other spots along the Rio Grande. Candelilla was harvested by bands of itinerant workers who pulled plants by hand, cooked them in vats of dilute sulfuric acid and skimmed off the wax that rose to the surface.

It takes roughly a ton of plants to produce 50 pounds of wax. Even so, candelilla is a renewable resource if harvested with care. The wax is still produced in the deserts of northern Mexico, and it’s still one of the best plant-based waxes on the planet.

In West Texas, much of candelilla’s native habitat now lies in state and national parks, where harvesting is not allowed.