''Yucca baccata'' (datil yucca or banana yucca, also known as Spanish bayonet and broadleaf yucca) is a common species of

yucca ''Yucca'' ( , YUCK-uh) is both the scientific name and common name for a genus native to North America from Panama to southern Canada. It contains 50 accepted species. In addition to yucca, they are also known as Adam's needle or Spanish-bayon ...

native to the

desert A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the la ...

s of the

southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural list of regions of the United States, region of the United States that includes Arizona and New Mexico, along with adjacen ...

and northwestern

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, from southeastern

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

north to

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, east to western

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

and south to

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into Municipalities of Sonora, 72 ...

and Chihuahua. It is also reported in the wild in

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. The species gets its common name "banana yucca" from its

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

-shaped

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

. The specific epithet ''baccata'' means 'with berries'. Banana yucca is closely related to the ''

Yucca schidigera ''Yucca schidigera'', also known as the Mojave yucca or Spanish dagger, is a perennial plant in the asparagus family Asparagaceae, native to the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. It is most common in the Mojave Desert, but also ...

'', the Mojave yucca, with which it is interspersed where their ranges overlap; hybrids between them occur.

Description

''Yucca baccata'' is recognized by having

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

long with a blue-green color, and short or nonexistent trunks. It flowers in the spring, starting in April to July depending on locality (altitude), and the

flower Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

s range from long, in six segments, white to cream-coloured with purple shades. The flower stalk is not especially tall, typically . The seeds are rough, black, wingless, long and wide, thick; they ripen in 6–8 weeks. The

indehiscent Dehiscence is the splitting of a mature plant structure along a built-in line of weakness to release its contents. This is common among fruits, anthers and sporangia. Sometimes this involves the complete detachment of a part. Structures that ...

fleshy fruit is long and across, cylindrical, and tastes similar to

sweet potato The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant in the morning glory family, Convolvulaceae. Its sizeable, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a root vegetable, which is a staple food in parts of ...

Subspecies

''Yucca baccata'' has been divided into three varieties: *''Yucca baccata'' var. ''baccata'' *''Yucca baccata'' var. ''brevifolia'' (Schott ex Torr.) L. Benson & Darrow *''Yucca baccata'' var. ''vespertina'' (McKelvey) Hochstätter As of 2023 the status of these subspecies is uncertain. In

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online taxonomic database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. History Following the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew launched Plants of the World Online i ...

(POWO) and

World Flora Online World Flora Online is an Internet-based compendium of the world's plant species. Description The World Flora Online (WFO) is an open-access database, launched in October 2012 as a follow-up project to The Plant List, with the aim of publishi ...

only ''Yucca baccata'' var. ''brevifolia'' and the

autonym Autonym may refer to: * Autonym, the name used by a person to refer to themselves or their language; see Exonym and endonym * Autonym (botany), an automatically created infrageneric or infraspecific name See also * Nominotypical subspecies, in zo ...

are listed as accepted. Several

botanical synonym In taxonomy, the scientific classification of living organisms, a synonym is an alternative scientific name for the accepted scientific name of a taxon. The botanical and zoological codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. ...

s are listed by POWO for each of the species recognized there. ''Yucca baccata'' var. ''baccata'': ''Yucca baccata'' var. ''brevifolia'':

Distribution and habitat

The plant is known from the

Great Basin The Great Basin () is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets to the ocean, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja Californi ...

, the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan Deserts, plus the '' Arizona/New Mexico Mountains ecoregion'' and lower, southern parts of the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

. It occurs primarily in the US states of

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

, and

, and the Mexican state of Chihuahua. It can be found in several habitat types including Pinyon-Juniper, desert grassland,

Creosote bush scrub Creosote bush scrub is a North American desert vegetation type (or biome) of sparsely but evenly spaced desert plants dominated by creosote bush (''Larrea tridentata'') and its associates. Its visual characterization is of widely spaced shrubs th ...

sagebrush Sagebrush is the common name of several woody and herbaceous species of plants in the genus ''Artemisia (plant), Artemisia''. The best-known sagebrush is the shrub ''Artemisia tridentata''. Sagebrush is native to the western half of North Amer ...

, and

ponderosa pine ''Pinus ponderosa'', commonly known as the ponderosa pine, bull pine, blackjack pine, western yellow-pine, or filipinus pine, is a very large pine tree species of variable habitat native to mountainous regions of western North America. It is t ...

colonies at

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

s generally between . It is associated with ''

'', ''

Yucca brevifolia ''Yucca brevifolia'' (also known as the Joshua tree, yucca palm, tree yucca, and palm tree yucca) is a plant species belonging to the genus ''Yucca''. It is tree-like in habit, which is reflected in its common names. This monocotyledonous tree ...

'', ''

Yucca arizonica ''Yucca'' ( , YUCK-uh) is both the scientific name and common name for a genus native to North America from Panama to southern Canada. It contains 50 accepted species. In addition to yucca, they are also known as Adam's needle or Spanish-bayon ...

'', '' Yucca faxoniana'', '' Agave utahensis'', and other ''

Agave ''Agave'' (; ; ) is a genus of monocots native to the arid regions of the Americas. The genus is primarily known for its succulent and xerophytic species that typically form large Rosette (botany), rosettes of strong, fleshy leaves. Many plan ...

'' species. It can be found among ''

Sclerocactus ''Sclerocactus'' ("hard cactus", from Greek language, Greek; refers to the hard, dry fruit) is a genus of cactus, cacti. It comprises about 15 species, the exact number depending on the authority. These species are xerophytic. They are sometimes ...

'', ''

Pediocactus ''Pediocactus'' (Greek: πεδίον (pedion) means "plain", "flat", "field") is a genus of cacti native to the Western United States. The genus comprises between 6 and 11 species, depending upon the authority. Species of this genus are referred ...

'', ''

Navajoa ''Pediocactus'' (Greek: πεδίον (pedion) means "plain", "flat", "field") is a genus of cacti native to the Western United States. The genus comprises between 6 and 11 species, depending upon the authority. Species of this genus are referred ...

'', and ''

Toumeya ''Sclerocactus'' ("hard cactus", from Greek; refers to the hard, dry fruit) is a genus of cacti. It comprises about 15 species, the exact number depending on the authority. These species are xerophytic. They are sometimes called 'fishhook cactus ...

'' species. The plant occurs in a large area of the North American deserts and exhibits much variation across its range. ''Yucca baccata'' specimens from the higher, mountainous regions of the

is winterhardy and tolerates extreme conditions.

Ecology

It is a larval host to the

ursine giant skipper ''Megathymus ursus'', known generally as the ursus giant skipper or ursine giant skipper, is a species of giant skipper in the butterfly family Hesperiidae Skippers are a group of butterflies placed in the family Hesperiidae within the order L ...

, yucca giant skipper, and various yucca moths, including '' Tegeticula baccatella''.The Xerces Society (2016), ''Gardening for Butterflies: How You Can Attract and Protect Beautiful, Beneficial Insects'', Timber Press. After feeding, the skippers pupate in the yucca's roots.

Uses

The young flower stalks can be cooked and eaten, with the tough outer rind discarded. The fruit can be eaten raw or cooked, in the latter case resembling sweet potato. The Paiutes dried the fruits for use during the winter. It is still a popular food amongst Mexican Indians. The flowers are often eaten by rural residents.

Ancestral Puebloan The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as Ancestral Pueblo peoples or the Basketmaker-Pueblo culture, were an ancient Native American culture of Pueblo peoples spanning the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southe ...

peoples used the fibers derived from the leaves to create sandals and cordage, and the root was used as soap, although with less frequency than that of ''

Yucca elata ''Yucca elata'' is a perennial plant, with common names that include soaptree, soaptree yucca, soapweed, and palmella. It is native to southwestern North America, in the Sonoran Desert and Chihuahuan Desert in the United States (western Texas, N ...

.''

Description

Subspecies

Distribution and habitat

Ecology

Uses

References

Further reading