Plantae > Tracheophyta > Liliopsida > Asparagales > Asparagaceae > Yucca > Yucca aloifolia

Yucca aloifolia (Spanish Bayonet)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Yucca aloifolia is the type species for the genus Yucca. Common names include aloe yucca, dagger plant, and Spanish bayonet. It grows in sandy soils, especially on sand dunes along the coast. Yucca aloifolia is native to the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States from southern Virginia south to Florida and west to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, to Mexico along the Yucatán coast, and to Bermuda, and parts of the Caribbean. Normally Yucca aloifolia is grown in USDA zones 8 through 11. Yucca aloifolia is a popular landscape plant in beach areas along the lower East Coast from Virginia to Florida.
View Wikipedia Record: Yucca aloifolia

Infraspecies

Yucca aloifolia var. draconis
Yucca aloifolia var. yucatan

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  Low
Bloom Period [2]  Early Summer
Drought Tolerance [2]  Medium
Edible [3]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Fire Tolerance [2]  Medium
Flower Type [3]  Hermaphrodite
Frost Free Days [2]  9 months 6 days
Fruit/Seed Begin [2]  Fall
Fruit/Seed End [2]  Winter
Growth Form [2]  Colonizing
Growth Period [2]  Spring
Growth Rate [2]  Slow
Hazards [3]  The roots contain saponins; Whilst saponins are quite toxic to people, they are poorly absorbed by the body and so tend to pass straight through. They are also destroyed by prolonged heat, such as slow baking in an oven. Saponins are found in many common foods such as beans; Saponins are much more toxic to some creatures, such as fish, and hunting tribes have traditionally put large quantities of them in streams, lakes etc in order to stupefy or kill the fish;
Leaf Type [3]  Evergreen
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Pollinators [3]  Bats
Propagation [2]  Bare Root, Container, Cutting, Seed
Root Depth [2]  24 inches (61 cm)
Scent [3]  The flowers are powerfully fragrant at night;
Seed Vigor [2]  Medium
Seeds Per [2]  15000 / lb (33069 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [2]  Erect
Structure [3]  Tree
Usage [3]  A fibre obtained from the leaves is used for making ropes, baskets and mats; Narrow, split leaf strips have been used as sewing material for coiled plaques; The leaves have been used in several types of basketry; The leaf splints have been used as brushes to apply colour to pottery; The leaves can be split and used as a temporary string; The roots are rich in saponins and can be used as a soap substitute. They are crushed and then placed in water to form suds that are used in bathing and shampooing; The juice from the plant has been used as a varnish;
Flower Color [2]  White
Foliage Color [2]  Dark Green
Fruit Color [2]  Black
Flower Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Fruit Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Height [3]  25 feet (7.5 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [2]  USDA Zone: 6 Low Temperature: -10 F° (-23.3 C°) → 0 F° (-17.8 C°)
Light Preference [2]  Mixed Sun/Shade
Soil Acidity [2]  Neutral
Soil Fertility [2]  Intermediate
View Plants For A Future Record : Yucca aloifolia

Protected Areas

Predators

Range Map

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 3Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 4Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 5Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0