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yucca

  [yuhk-uh]
yucca, any plant of the genus Yucca, stiff-leaved stemless or treelike succulents of the family Liliaceae (lily family), native chiefly to the tablelands of Mexico and the American Southwest but found also in the E United States and the West Indies. Yuccas in flower produce a large stalk of white or purplish blossoms. They are pollinated by the yucca moth, and in its absence they rarely fruit—a striking example of interdependence, since the moth, which lays its eggs during pollination and whose larvae feed on some of the developing seeds, cannot reproduce without the yucca. The leaves are usually stiff and spearlike, often with marginal threads. Several species are known as Adam's-needle, particularly those that are hardy and are cultivated in the North, most common of which is Y. filamentosa. The Joshua tree (Y. brevifolia) is a picturesque treelike species of desert regions. Mormons crossing the California deserts are said to have so named it because the grotesquely angular branches looked like the outstretched arms of a Joshua leading them out of the wilderness. The Spanish bayonet (Y. aloifolia) is another that is treelike in form, and the Spanish dagger (Y. gloriosa) is stemless or has a short trunk. The fruits and sometimes the flowers of several species of yucca were used as food by Native Americans. Certain species, particularly Y. baccata and Y. glauca, are called soap plant because of the use of their roots for soap. The fibers of some kinds have been utilized. A yucca is the state flower of New Mexico. Yuccas are classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Liliopsida, order Liliales, family Liliaceae.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press
yucca

Yucca

Any of about 40 species of succulent plants (genus Yucca) of the lily family, native to southern North America. Most species lack a stem and have a rosette of stiff, sword-shaped leaves at the base and clusters of waxy white flowers. The Joshua tree (Y. brevifolia) has a stem more than 33 ft (10 m) high. Commonly cultivated as ornamentals for their unusual appearance and attractive flower clusters are the aptly named Spanish bayonet (Y. aloifolia), Spanish dagger (Y. gloriosa), and Adam's needle, or bear grass (Y. filamentosa). Yucca moths (genus Tegeticula) inhabit yucca bushes, each moth species adapted to a particular yucca species. The yucca can be fertilized by no other insect, and the moth can use no other plant to raise its larvae.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Yucca

The yuccas comprise the genus Yucca of 40-50 species of perennials, shrubs, and trees in the agave family Agavaceae, notable for their rosettes of evergreen, tough, sword-shaped leaves and large terminal clusters of white or whitish flowers. They are native to the hot and dry parts of North America, Central America, and the West Indies.

Yuccas have a very specialized pollination system, being pollinated by the yucca moth; the insect purposefully transfers the pollen from the stamens of one plant to the stigma of another, and at the same time lays an egg in the flower; the moth larva then eats some of the developing seeds, but far from all.

Yuccas are widely grown as ornamental plants in gardens. Many yuccas also bear edible parts, including fruits, seeds, flowers, flowering stems, and more rarely roots, but use of these is sufficiently limited that references to yucca as food more often than not stem from confusion with the similarly spelled but botanically unrelated yuca.

Dried yucca has the lowest ignition temperature of any wood, making it desirable for fire-starting.

The "yucca flower" is the state flower of New Mexico. No species name is given in the citation.

Distribution

The natural distribution range of the genus Yucca (49 species and 24 subspecies) covers a vast area of north- and central America. From Baja California in the west, northwards into the southwestern USA, through the drier central states as far north as Canada (Alberta province, Yucca glauca ssp. albertana), and moving east along the Gulf of Mexico, and then north again, through the Atlantic coastal and inland neighbouring states. To the south, the genus is represented throughout Mexico and extends into Guatemala (Yucca elephantipes). Yuccas have adapted to an equally vast range of climatic and ecological conditions. They are to be found in rocky deserts and badlands, in prairies and grassland, in mountainous regions, in light woodland, in coastal sands (Yucca filamentosa), and even in sub-tropical and semi-temperate zones, although these are nearly always arid to semi-arid.

Species

Yucca aloifolia Aloe yucca, Spanish Bayonet
Yucca brevifolia Joshua tree
Yucca constricta Buckley's yucca
Yucca baccata Banana yucca, datil
Yucca decipiens Palma China
Yucca elata Soaptree yucca
Yucca filamentosa Spoonleaf yucca, Filament yucca, or Adam's Needle
Yucca filifera Palma Chuna yucca
Yucca flaccida Flaccid leaf yucca
Yucca glauca Great Plains yucca
Yucca gloriosa Moundlily yucca, Adam's needle, Spanish Dagger
Yucca grandiflora Sahuiliqui yucca
Yucca guatemalensis Spineless yucca
Yucca harrimaniae Harriman's yucca
Yucca intermedia Intermediate Yucca
Yucca jaliscensis Izote
Yucca kanabensis Kanab yucca
Yucca lacandonica Tropical yucca
Yucca madrensis Soco yucca
Yucca nana Dwarf yucca
Yucca pallida Pale yucca
Yucca periculosa Izote
Yucca recurvifolia Curve-leaf yucca
Yucca rigida Blue yucca
Yucca rostrata Big Bend yucca
Yucca rupicola Texas yucca, or Twist-leaf yucca
Yucca schidigera Mojave yucca
Yucca schottii Hoary yucca or Mountain yucca
Yucca standleyi
Yucca thompsoniana Thompson's Yucca
Yucca thornberi
Yucca torreyi Torrey yucca
Yucca treculiana Texas bayonette, Trecul's yucca
Yucca valida Datilillo
Yucca yucatana Yucatan yucca

A number of other species previously classified in Yucca are now classified in the genera Dasylirion, Furcraea, Hesperaloe, Hesperoyucca and Nolina.

Taxonomic arrangement

  • Section Chaenocarpa Engelm.

  • Section Hesperoyucca Engelm.

    • Yucca whipplei Torr.

      • Yucca whipplei Torr. ssp. whipplei
      • Yucca whipplei Torr. ssp. caespitosa (Jones) Haines
      • Yucca whipplei Torr. ssp. intermedia Haines
      • Yucca whipplei Torr. ssp. percursa Haines
      • Yucca whipplei Torr. ssp. newberryi (McKelvey) Hochstätter
      • Yucca whipplei Torr. ssp. eremica Epling & Haines

    Cultivars

    In the years from 1897 to 1907, Carl Ludwig Sprenger created and named 122 Yucca hybrids.

    Other facts

    Because of their omnipresence in the southwestern United States, yuccas have lent their name to several places:

    Yuccas are poisonous to rabbits

    References

    • Fritz Hochstätter (Hrsg.): Yucca (Agavaceae). Band 1 Dehiscent-fruited species in the Southwest and Midwest of the USA, Canada and Baja California , Selbst Verlag, 2000. ISBN 3-00-005946-6
    • Fritz Hochstätter (Hrsg.): Yucca (Agavaceae). Band 2 Indehiscent-fruited species in the Southwest, Midwest and East of the USA, Selbst Verlag. 2002. ISBN 3-00-009008-8
    • Fritz Hochstätter (Hrsg.): Yucca (Agavaceae). Band 3 Mexico , Selbst Verlag, 2004. ISBN 3-00-013124-8
    • M. & G. Irish, Agaves, Yuccas, and Related Plants: a Gardener's Guide (Timber Press, 2000). ISBN 0-88192-442-3
    • Common names of yucca species
    • Die Gattung Yucca Fritz Hochstätter
    • Yucca I Verbreitungskarte I Fritz Hochstätter
    • UVSC Herbarium - Yucca
    • New Mexico Statutes and Court Rules: State Flower

    Gallery

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    Last updated on Wednesday October 08, 2008 at 16:40:19 PDT (GMT -0700)
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