Skip to main content

Weak-leaf yucca (Yucca flaccida)

Weak-leaf yucca Synonyms: Yucca concava, Yucca filamentosa var. concava, Yucca filamentosa var. smalliana, Yucca smalliana

Common Names: Adam's Needle, beargrass, flaccid leaf yucca, floppy yucca

Description:

Habit: Stemless evergreen shrub that can grow to 22 inches tall and 59 inches wide.

Leaves: Sword-shaped and pointed, 1- 1.7 feet long, bends downward, thread-like fibers on margin.

Flowers: Showy and white in color, about 1 inch long, bell-shaped and grow in prominent erect clusters on a 3-8 ft tall flower stalk.

Fruit and seeds: Fruit capsules are green to black in color, 1-3 in. long, less than 1 inch wide, dry, and oblong.

Habitat: Native to Mexico and southwestern United States. Grows well in arid environments including deserts, badlands, prairies, grassland, mountainous regions, woodland and coastal sands.

Reproduction: By seed or vegetatively by suckers that can form small colonies.

Similar species: Can be confused with the similarly pronounced, but botanically unrelated, yuca, also known as Cassava (Manihot esculenta).

Credits: The information provided in this factsheet was gathered from the North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox.

Individual species images that appear with a number in a black box are courtesy of the Bugwood.org network (http://www.invasive.org).Individual photo author credits may not be included due to the small display size of the images and subsequent difficulty of reading the provided text. All other images appear courtesy of Google (http://images.google.com).


Common Name:

Weak-leaf yucca

Scientific Name:

Yucca flaccida

Family:

Agavaceae
(Century-plant)

Duration:

Perennial

Habit:

Shrubs

USDA Symbol:

YUFL2