Asparagaceae
Yucca

Yucca aloifolia L.

First published in Sp. Pl.: 319 (1753)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is SE. Texas to SE. U.S.A., Bermuda, Central & S. Mexico. It is a tree and grows primarily in the seasonally dry tropical biome.

Descriptions

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/117422548/117469927

Conservation
DD - data deficient
[IUCN]

George R. Proctor (2012). Flora of the Cayman Isands (Second Edition). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Morphology General Habit
A shrub or small tree up to 4 m tall, unbranched or with a few short branches, often growing in clumps or colonies.
Morphology Leaves
Leaves numerous, dark green, rigid, mostly 30–60 cm long 2–3.5 cm broad, minutely roughened on the margins and terminating in a sharp brown spine.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences
Panicle compact, erect, up to 60 cm long; flowers numerous, nodding, creamy- white (rarely tinged purple), 3–5 cm long; ovary short-stipitate
Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits
Fruit an indehiscent pulpy capsule 7–9 cm long, the pulp dark purple; seeds roundish-flattened, up to 7 mm in greatest diameter.
Distribution
Grand Cayman, Little Cayman. Southeastern United States and eastern Mexico, Bermuda, Bahamas and the Greater Antilles.
Ecology
Often cultivated, so that its true natural distribution is hard to determine; the Cayman records may represent escapes from cultivation.
[Cayman]

Extinction risk predictions for the world's flowering plants to support their conservation (2024). Bachman, S.P., Brown, M.J.M., Leão, T.C.C., Lughadha, E.N., Walker, B.E. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19592

Conservation
Predicted extinction risk: not threatened. Confidence: confident
[AERP]

Uses

Use
The flowers are edible, either raw (in salads) or cooked as a vegetable; those of Yucca guatemalensis in Guatemala are often dipped in egg batter and fried.
[Cayman]

Common Names

unknown
dagger plant

Sources

  • Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions v1

    • Angiosperm Threat Predictions
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • EBC Common Names

    • Common Names from Kew's Economic Botany Collection https://www.kew.org/science/collections-and-resources/collections/economic-botany-collection

  • Flora of the Cayman Islands

    • Flora of the Cayman Islands
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    • Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • IUCN Categories

    • IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2026. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2026. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Science Photographs

    • Copyright applied to individual images