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Yucca baccata
Spanish Bayonet
Plant Type:
ARID LAND PLANTSYucca baccata - The Banana Yucca forms tough, stiff and thick succulent sword-like leaves. Gorgeous showy ivory-white flowers open in summer; they casually drape at about a 45 degree angle to the top of the flowering stem which can attain a height of usually between 3 and 4 feet. Its flowers and plump fruits mature late season and are both edible. In fact, this plant has many practical and medicinal applications. In the southwest its lovely flowers are pollinated by a single night-flying moth, the Pronuba or Yucca Moth (Tegeticula sp.) If we want to fertilize Yucca baccataI suppose we'll have to get out our little artist's paintbrush... For us it is very slow growing. But once a plant settles in it will produce many offsets and form a colony. Older plants develop a short trunk. This is a great four season texture in the exposed, full sun garden. Site in full blazing sun in bony soils of low to modest fertility. The addition of lime couldn't hurt! Spring planting will be the wiser tactic for gardeners towards the northern end of its range. Seed grown.
Characteristics and Attributes for Yucca baccata
Season of Interest (Flowering)
- Summer
Season of Interest (Foliage)
- Four Seasons
Autumn Interest
- Fruit / Berries / Seed Heads
Nature Attraction
- Honey Bees & Native Bees
- Butterflies
- Deer Resistant
- Hummingbirds
Light
- Full Sun
Attributes
- Drought Tolerant
- Evergreen
- Rock Garden
- Massing
- Labyrinth
- Salt Tolerant
- Accent
- Specimen
Growth Rate in the Garden
- Slow
Soil
- Scrabbled
- Sandy
- Average
- Calcareous
- Draining
- Impoverished
Origins
- Southwestern U.S.
Propagated By
- By Seed / Potted