Yucca angustissima |
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fineleaf yucca, narrowleaf yucca |
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Habit | Plants solitary or forming small to large colonies of rosettes, acaulescent or rarely caulescent, to 3 m diam.; rosettes usually small. | ||||||||||||
Stems | procumbent, 0.1–0.4 m, or erect, 1–2 m. Leaf blade rigidly spreading, including distal leaves, linear, lanceolate, concavo-convex, or plano-keeled, widest near middle, 20–80(–150) × 0.4–2 cm, rigid or flexible, not glaucous, margins entire, becoming filiferous, white, becoming brownish, gray, or green, apex long-acuminate, spinose, spine acicular, short, 3–7 mm. |
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Inflorescences | racemose, occasionally paniculate proximally, arising well beyond rosettes, (4–)8–20 dm, glabrous or finely pubescent; branches, when present, 0.5–1 dm; bracts erect, linear, proximal 10–20 × 1–2 cm, distal 3–8 × 1–2 cm; peduncle scapelike, 0.3–2.5 m, 1–2 cm diam. |
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Flowers | pendent, 3–5.5(–6.5) cm; perianth campanulate to globose; tepals distinct, white to cream or greenish white, often tinged pink or brown, broad to narrowly elliptic to lanceolate-elliptic or orbiculate, 3–6.5 × 1.3–2.5 cm; filaments 0.7–2.8 cm; anthers 3.2–6 mm; pistil 1.5–3.5 cm; style white to pale green, 3–10(–13) mm; stigmas lobed. |
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Fruits | erect, capsular, dehiscent, moderately to deeply constricted, 3.5–7.5 × 2–3 cm, dehiscence septicidal. |
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Seeds | dull black, thin, 7–9 × 5–7 mm. |
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Yucca angustissima |
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Distribution |
North America
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Discussion | Varieties 4 (4 in the flora). Our treatment of Yucca angustissima reflects the concepts of J. L. Reveal (1977c). Each variety is well isolated geographically, but they overlap with one another morphologically. S. L. Welsh et al. (1993) treated the taxa in this complex at species level, with the exception of Y. angustissima var. aria, considered a high-altitude extreme of the typical variety. K. H. Clary (1997) presented DNA evidence that supports Welsh et al.’s treatment of this complex, in that Y. angustissima, Y. kanabensis, and Y. toftiae sort out distinctly from one another in her consensus tree. However, Welsh et al. indicated significant intergradation among these taxa, which makes their recognition at varietal rank seem most appropriate. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 26, p. 434. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Agavaceae > Yucca | ||||||||||||
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Subordinate taxa | |||||||||||||
Name authority | Engelmann ex Trelease: Rep. (Annual) Missouri Bot. Gard. 13: 58, plate 23, fig. 1, plate 24, fig.1, plate 83, fig. 6, plate 93, fig. 1. (1902) | ||||||||||||
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