Yucca baccata
Yucca baccata with short inflorescence and large flowers in Utah
The Blue Yucca (Yucca baccata ) ( trivial names in other languages: Banana Yucca, Datil Yucca ) is a plant of the genus yucca (Yucca ) in the family of asparagus plants ( Asparagaceae ).
Description
The solitary growing Blue Yucca is stemless or rare forms a short trunk, but sometimes forms clots. The variable blue to green leaves are 0.3 to 0.7 meters long and form at the leaf margins fibers.
The beginning between the leaves short upright or tilted to one side, branched, dense inflorescence is 0.5 to 0.8 meters high and barely protrudes beyond the leaves. The drooping, elongated flowers are 4-10 inches long and 1-3 inches wide. The six bracts are mostly white to cream-colored. The outer bracts are partial to purple colored reddish. The flowering period extends from April to July.
Due to the huge expanse, the plants are very variable.
The species is hardy in dry state to minus 20 ° C. In Albuquerque and Santa Fe (New Mexico), Twin Falls ( Idaho) and Denver (Colorado) can be admired old specimens. In Mannheim, several 20 to 30 years old specimens grown unprotected in the open.
Dissemination
Yucca baccata is in the Chihuahuan Desert, Sonoran Desert in Mexico, in the United States in the Great Basin Desert, the Mojave Desert, in the states of Utah, California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas in Pinyon Juniper woodland in mountain regions distributed at altitudes 1500-2500 meters. This type is often associated with a variety of yucca, agave, Sclerocactus, Pediocactus and Navajoa species and with Toumeya papyracantha.
System
The name refers to the fruit (berry -like). The first description by John Torrey under the name Yucca baccata has been published in 1859.
We distinguish the following sub- types:
- Yucca baccata subsp. baccata
- Yucca baccata subsp. vespertina ( McKelvey ) Hochstätter
- Yucca baccata subsp. thornberi ( McKelvey ) Hochstätter
Yucca baccata is a representative of the section Yucca, serial Baccatae.
Pictures
Yucca baccata:
With partly red bloom cladding in New Mexico.
In dry grasslands in Arizona.
30 years old copy in culture.