Yucca treculeana
Common name: 
Spanish Bayonet
Spanish Dagger
Don Quixote's Lance
Palma Pita
Pronunciation: 
YUK-ah tre-kul-ee-AY-na
Family: 
Asparagaceae
Genus: 
Synonyms: 
Yucca torreyi
Yucca canaliculata
Yucca argospatha
Type: 
Broadleaf
Native to (or naturalized in) Oregon: 
No
  • Broadleaf evergreen shrub to tree-like, often forming colonies of rosettes, to 20 ft (6 m), with leaves hanging at various angles, giving it a ragged appearance.  Leaves erect, yellowish to bluish green, thick, 35-120 cm long and 2-7cm wide, usually U- or V-shaped in cross section, margins entire, but with coarse, straight, light brown fibers.  Flower cluster (inflorescence) erect, to about 1-2 m long, mostly arising within rosettes; flowers cream-colored tinged with purple, 3-8 cm long.  Fruit pendent, 5-18 cm long, fleshy, succulent, containing black seeds.
  • Hardy to USDA Zone (6) 7 or 8    Seems to be a great diversity in its reported cold hardiness possibly attributed to different ecotypes of the species, the “wetness” of the growing site, and/or to confusion as to the species being grown.  Y. treculeana, Y. schidigera, and Y. faxoniana are similar and often difficult to distinguish.
  • Found on grassy or rocky slopes or mesas, chaparral in New Mexico, Texas and northern Mexico.
  • Sun, light shade, well-drained soil, drought-tolerant
  • treculeana:  named for Auguste Adolphe Lucien Trecul, 19th century French botanist; also spelled treculiana
     
Click image to enlarge
  • plant habit, in habitat

    plant habit, in habitat

  • leaves

    leaves

  • leaf with marginal fibers

    leaf with marginal fibers