Principal English Translation:
sandy land (see Karttunen), of limited fertility, but it will grow thin maize stalks (see the Digital Florentine Codex, Book 11, f. 227r.)
Attestations from sources in English:
xalalli = sandy soil
Barbara J. Williams, "Mexico: Aztec Soil Classification and Land Tenure," Actes de XLIIe Congrès International des Américanistes, 9 (Paris: Société des Américanistes, 1980), pp. 165–175. See p. 168.
Attestations from sources in Spanish:
tierra arenosa y estéril (1570s, central Mexico)
Sahagún, Bernardino de, Antonio Valeriano, Alonso Vegerano, Martín Jacobita, Pedro de San Buenaventura, Diego de Grado, Bonifacio Maximiliano, Mateo Severino, et al. Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España (Florentine Codex), Ms. Mediceo Palatino 218–20, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, MiBACT, 1577. Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter, Alicia Maria Houtrouw, Kevin Terraciano, Jeanette Peterson, Diana Magaloni, and Lisa Sousa, bk. 11, fol. 227r. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/227r . Accessed 7 January 2026.