Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Yucca baccata

Yucca baccata var. brevifolia

banana yucca, datil yucca, Spanish bayonet
Photo is of parent taxon

Thornber yucca
Habit Plants often forming open colonies of rosettes, acaulescent or short-caulescent, shorter than 2.5 m. Stems, if present, decumbent, 1–24, aerial or subterranean, simple or sometimes branched, to 2 m. Leaf blade erect, bluish green, concavo-convex, 30–100 × 2–6 cm, rigid, scabrous or glaucous, margins brown. Plants caulescent.
Stems

1–24, aerial, often branched, some reaching 2 m. Leaf margins filiferous.
Inflorescences

erect, paniculate, dense, arising completely within to mostly extending beyond rosettes, ovoid, 6–8.2 dm, glabrous, rarely slightly pubescent;

peduncle scapelike, to 0.8 m. Flowers pendent, 5–13 cm, nearly as wide;

perianth campanulate;

tepals connate basally to form shallow floral cup 7–12 mm, usually cream-colored, occasionally tinged with purple, 4.5–13 cm;

filaments connate proximally into collarlike structure, 3.2–12 mm, fleshy, pubescent;

anthers 5–7 mm;

pistil 4.5–8 × 0.7–1.2 cm (usually 4–5(–7) times longer than broad);

ovary 0.7–1.2 cm;

style 5–7 mm;

stigmas distinct.

arising almost completely within to mostly extending beyond rosettes;

peduncle to 0.3 m.
Fruits

pendent, baccate, indehiscent, elongate, 5–23 × 4–7.5 cm, fleshy, succulent.

Seeds

dull black, obovate, 7–11 mm diam., 3 mm thick, rugose.

Yucca baccata

Yucca baccata var. brevifolia
Phenology Flowering spring–early summer.
Habitat Hills, mesas, flats in Sonoran Desert, desert grasslands, oak woodlands, 500–2000 m
Distribution
from USDA
North America; Mexico (Chihuahua, Sonora)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AZ; NM; Mexico (Sonora)
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Plants acaulescent or caulescent; stems 1–6, aerial or subterranean, shorter than 0.3 m; leaf margins coarse, curling.
var. baccata
1. Plants caulescent; stems 1–24, aerial, often branched, some reaching 2 m; leaf margins filiferous.
var. brevifolia
Source FNA vol. 26, p. 427. FNA vol. 26, p. 427.
Parent taxa Agavaceae > Yucca Agavaceae > Yucca > Yucca baccata
Sibling taxa
Y. aloifolia, Y. angustissima, Y. arkansana, Y. baileyi, Y. brevifolia, Y. campestris, Y. constricta, Y. elata, Y. faxoniana, Y. filamentosa, Y. flaccida, Y. glauca, Y. gloriosa, Y. harrimaniae, Y. intermedia, Y. madrensis, Y. necopina, Y. neomexicana, Y. pallida, Y. reverchonii, Y. rostrata, Y. rupicola, Y. schidigera, Y. tenuistyla, Y. thompsoniana, Y. treculeana, Y. utahensis
Y. baccata var. baccata
Subordinate taxa
Y. baccata var. baccata, Y. baccata var. brevifolia
Synonyms Y. brevifolia, Y. arizonica, Y. confinis, Y. thornberi, Y. treleasei
Name authority Torrey: in W. H. Emory, Rep. U.S. Mex. Bound. 2(1): 221. (1859) L. D. Benson & R. A. Darrow: Amer. J. Bot. 30: 234. (1943)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers