Plantae > Tracheophyta > Liliopsida > Asparagales > Asparagaceae > Yucca > Yucca glauca

Yucca glauca (Soapweed)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Yucca glauca (syn. Yucca angustifolia) is a species of perennial evergreen plant, adapted to xeric (dry)growth conditions. It is also known as small soapweed, soapweed yucca, Spanish bayonet, Great Plains yucca and beargrass. Yucca glauca forms colonies of rosettes. Leaves are long and narrow, up to 60 cm long bur rarely more than 12 mm across. Inflorescence is up to 100 cm tall, sometimes branched sometimes not. Flowers are pendent (drooping, hanging downward), white to very pale green. Fruit is a dry capsule with shiny black seeds.
View Wikipedia Record: Yucca glauca

Infraspecies

Yucca angustifolia var. angustifolia

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  Low
Screening - Summer [2]  Porous
Screening - Winter [2]  Porous
Bloom Period [2]  Late Spring
Drought Tolerance [2]  High
Edible [3]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Fire Tolerance [2]  None
Flower Type [3]  Hermaphrodite
Frost Free Days [2]  4 months 20 days
Fruit/Seed Abundance [2]  High
Fruit/Seed Begin [2]  Summer
Fruit/Seed End [2]  Summer
Growth Form [2]  Rhizomatous
Growth Period [2]  Spring, Summer
Growth Rate [2]  Moderate
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]  Hand
Propagation [2]  Bare Root, Container, Seed
Regrowth Rate [2]  Slow
Root Depth [2]  6 inches (15 cm)
Scent [3]  The scent of the flowers is most pronounced at night;
Seed Spread Rate [2]  Moderate
Seed Vigor [2]  High
Seeds Per [2]  24850 / lb (54785 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [2]  Decumbent
Structure [3]  Shrub
Usage [3]  Both the leaves, and a fibre obtained from the leaves, can be used for making cloth, ropes and mats; The leaves can be split and used to make baskets; The leaves are used as paint brushes and brooms; The leaves can be split and used as a temporary tying material; The sharp points of the leaves have been used as needles; The roots are rich in saponins and can be used as a soap substitute; The soap obtained from the root makes a good hair shampoo; The shampoo also rids the body of lice and other parasites;
Vegetative Spread Rate [2]  Slow
Flower Color [2]  White
Foliage Color [2]  Green
Fruit Color [2]  Black
Fall Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Flower Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Fruit Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Height [3]  4.92 feet (1.5 m)
Width [3]  20 inches (0.5 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [2]  USDA Zone: 4 Low Temperature: -30 F° (-34.4 C°) → -20 F° (-28.9 C°)
Light Preference [2]  Full Sun
Soil Acidity [2]  Neutral
Soil Fertility [2]  Infertile
Water Use [2]  Low
View Plants For A Future Record : Yucca glauca

Protected Areas

Emblem of

New Mexico

Predators

Cecidophyopsis hendersoni[4]
Megathymus streckeri (Strecker’s Giant Skipper)[5]
Megathymus yuccae (Yucca skipper)[5]
Neotoma micropus (southern plains woodrat)[6]

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
♦ 4New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Plant-SyNZ™ database
♦ 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.
♦ 6Neotoma micropus, J. K. Braun and M. A. Mares, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 330, pp. 1-9 (1989)
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