Yucca filamentosa L.

Yucca filamentosa var. bracteata Engelm., Yucca filamentosa var. elmensis Sprenger, Yucca filamentosa var. laevigata Engelm., Yucca filamentosa var. maxima Baker, Yucca filamentosa var. media Carrière, Yucca filamentosa var. mexicana S.Schauer, Yucca filamentosa var. nobilis Sprenger, Yucca filamentosa var. patens Carrière, Yucca filamentosa var. recurvifolia Alph.Wood, Yucca filamentosa var. variegata Carrière

Asparagaceae

Adam’s Needle, Adam’s Needle Yucca, Beargrass, Common Yucca, Filament Yucca, Silkgrass, Spoonleaf Yucca, Desert Candle, Needle Palm

The plant is a native of southeastern N. America to Mexico. It has been introduced and become naturalized in Europe.

In its native range, it occurs in sand dunes, waste ground and pine forests along the coastal plain. The plant thrives in sandy to sandy loam soils in full sun and is very drought tolerant and do well in outdoor container even without supplementary irrigation.

Flowers are eaten fresh and raw, cooked or dried, crushed and used as flavouring (Kunkel 1984; Bird 1990; McPherson 2007). Flowers can be added to salad (Facciola 1990). Some common recipes include yucca flower soup, stuffed yucca flowers and apple crumble pie (Roberts 2000). Another recipe is braised yucca flowers with peas (Belsinger 1990). Flowering stem is cooked and used like asparagus (Bird 1990). The fruits are eaten raw or cooked (Uphof 1968; Usher 1974; Facciola 1990). The fruit is often dried for winter use.

An acaulescent herbaceous perennial 1–4 m high (Plate 1). Leaves basal, strap-like, 2–4 cm wide and 0.6–1 m long, all originating from a point in the form of a rosette. Leaf lamina occasionally erect, proximal leaves often becoming reflexed near middle, lanceolate, flattened, abruptly narrowed and furrowed to apex, thin, widest near middle, usually soft and limp, scabrous, margins entire, long and curling, filiferous (producing threads) (Plate 2). The inflorescence paniculate, showy and borne on an erect scape 1–3 m high (Plates 1 and 3). Flowers up to two dozen, pendent, perianth globose; tepals distinct, creamy-white to nearly white, ovate, 5–7 × 2–3 cm, glabrous with short-acuminate apex; filaments shorter than pistil; pistil 1.5–3.8 cm with lobed stigmas (Plates 3, 4 and 5). Fruits erect, capsular, dehiscent, oblong, 3.8–5 by 2 cm. Seeds dull black, thin, 6 mm across.