Yucca glauca
Common name:
Small Soapweed
Soapwell
Beargrass
Great Plains Yucca
Pronunciation:
YUK-ah GLAW-ka
Family:
Asparagaceae, Agavaceae, Liliaceae,
Genus:
Type:
Broadleaf
Native to (or naturalized in) Oregon:
No
- Broadleaf evergreen shrub, 1-6 ft tall (1-2 m), one, occasionally two, clusters of long pointed leaves. Leaves narrow linear, 30-70 cm long, 6 to 10 mm wide, grayish or glaucous green, with a narrow white edge, usually with few fibers. Flowers are bell-shaped, pendulous, greenish white, 6-7 cm long, on a tall cluster (panicle), 100-200 cm, narrow and rarely branched. Fruit develops into an oblong, woody capsule containing many flat, glossy, black, winged seeds, about 12 mm long.
- Sun, well-drained soil, drought-tolerant, useful for dry sites.
- Hardy to USDA Zone 3 Extensive native range, from southern Alberta and Saskatchewan to New Mexico, including North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri.
- First described for science in 1813 by the English botanist-naturalist Thomas Nuttall.
- Common name: (Small) Soapweed Yucca, because its roots and palm-like leaves provided materials for the making of soap and baskets. A much larger species, Yucca elata, is also called Soapweed Yucca a well as Soaptree Yucca.
- glauca: gray-green, a reference to its leaves.
Click image to enlarge
-
plant habit, start of spring flowering
-
developing flower stalk
-
leaves
-
flower clusters, in habitat
-
developing clusters, in habitat
-
fruiting, in a landscape
-
fruit pods
-
fruit pods, in habitat
-
ripe fruit with seeds
-
fruit after seed drop
-
plant habit, late summer in native habitat (Kansas )
