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 glauca

beargrass, Great Plains yucca, narrowleaf yucca, plains yucca, small soapweed, soapweed yucca
Habit Plants forming small to moderate colonies, acaulescent or caulescent and arborescent, occasionally branched; rosettes 1–15 per colony, usually small.
Stems

erect, to 0.4 m. Leaf blade linear to linear-lanceolate, concave to concavo-convex, widest near middle, 40–60 × 0.8–1.2 cm, rigid, margins entire, filiferous, white, apex blunt to acicular.
Inflorescences

racemose, occasionally paniculate proximally, arising within or just beyond rosettes, 5–10 dm;

bracts erect, leaflike, 2–5 cm, reduced toward apex;

peduncle scapelike, 0.2–0.5 m, less than 2.5 cm diam.
Flowers

pendent;

tepals distinct, greenish white to white, elliptic, 5–5.3 × 2.6–3.5 cm, apex acute;

filaments white, 1.7–1.9 cm;

anthers yellow, 4 mm;

pistil green, obovoid, 3–3.7 × 1.7 cm;

style dark green, 10 mm;

stigmas lobed.
Fruits

erect, capsular, dehiscent, cylindric to obovoid, rarely constricted, 5–8(–9) × 3–4.5(–5) cm, dehiscence septicidal.
Seeds

black, slightly glossy, thin, 9–12 × 8–9 mm.

Yucca glauca
Phenology Flowering spring.
Habitat Prairies and waste areas in sandy or limestone soils
Elevation 500–2600 m (1600–8500 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CO; IA; KS; MO; MT; ND; NE; NM; OK; SD; TX; WY; AB
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Yucca glauca has the most extensive distribution of any North American Yucca. Its inflorescences are primarily racemose, but some plants exhibit branched inflorescences and varietal names have been given them. Yucca glauca and Y. arkansana are very similar. The leaves of Y. glauca are uniform in size, rigid, linear or linear-lanceolate, and up to 1.2 cm wide. In Y. arkansana, the young leaves immediately surrounding the peduncle are distinctly shorter than the outer leaves of the rosette, and mature leaves are generally somewhat flexible, lanceolate, and up to 2.5 cm wide. K. H. Clary’s (1997) DNA evidence does not indicate as close a relationship as the morphological characters suggest. J. M. Webber (1953) believed that Y. glauca forms hybrids with Y. baileyi, Y. elata, Y. constricta, and Y. angustissima.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 26, p. 437.
Parent taxa Agavaceae > Yucca
Sibling taxa
Y. aloifolia, Y. angustissima, Y. arkansana, Y. baccata, Y. baileyi, Y. brevifolia, Y. campestris, Y. constricta, Y. elata, Y. faxoniana, Y. filamentosa, Y. flaccida, 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
Synonyms Y. angustifolia, Y. glauca var. gurneyi, Y. glauca var. stricta, Y. stricta
Name authority Nuttall: Cat. Pl. Upper Louisiana, no. 89. (1813)
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