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| (Fig. 01) |
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| Picture Notes: The yuccas in (Figs. 01 & 04) were taken off of Nipton Road near the Crescent Peak Mine. The yuccas (Figs. 02 & 03) were captured on 03/26/2013 along the road leading to the Cottonwood Marina inside the Lake Mead National Recreation Area east of Searchlight, Nevada. |
Description: Identification of Banana Yucca’s (Yucca baccata Torr), is a.k.a. Blue yucca, Fleshy-fruited yucca, and Datil Yucca, is often quite difficult. Those with broad leaves are sometimes called Spanish Daggers, a name generally applied to the tree-like species of western Texas. Plains identification of the many Yucca species is often difficult. Plains Yucca (Y. glauca), common from the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains eastward almost throughout the plains and prairies of the central United States, is a small species with narrow, gray-green leaves. Banana yucca is closely related to the Mojave yucca (Y. schidigera), with which it is interspersed where their ranges overlap causing hybrids between them making identification even more difficult. Both of these species are closely related. The main difference is the color of their leaves. Banana Yucca's leaves are bluish green, whereas Mojave Yucca's leaves are more green. Also, Banana Yuccas do not have trunks and grow directly on the ground.
The Banana Yucca with its bluish green leaves is a common species of fruiting cactus native to the deserts of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, from southeastern California north to Utah, east to western Texas and south to Sonora and Chihuahua. It gets its name from its banana-shaped fruit. Y. baccata is recognized by having narrow, spine-tipped leaves 12-40 inches long with more of a blue-green color, and is a short single, stemless plant with nonexistent trunks and occur in an open cluster which is often wider than the leaves are high. It flowers in the spring, starting in April to July depending on locality (altitude). The flowering stalk is between 40-60 inches tall and bears large, pendant, fleshy, white to cream flowers with a red-purple tinge; flowers range from 2-5 inches. The indehiscent banana shaped fleshy fruits are sweet, 3-1/2-7 inches long and and cylindrical. Rigid, spine-tipped leaves in 1 or several rosettes, and a long cluster of large whitish flowers on a stalk about as tall as the leaves. |
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| (Fig. 02) |
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| (Fig. 03) |
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| (Fig. 04) |
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