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  4. Yucca gloriosa

Yucca gloriosa

Yucca gloriosa.<br>Photographer: John Smith-Dodsworth, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Yucca gloriosa.<br>Photographer: John Smith-Dodsworth, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Yucca gloriosa - Islington Bay, Rangitoto Island.<br>Photographer: Mike Wilcox, Date taken: 12/04/2006, Licence: All rights reserved. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Koitiata dune hollow (Turakina Beach).<br>Photographer: Colin C. Ogle, Date taken: 30/03/2013, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
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Common name

Spanish dagger, palm lily, mound-lily yucca

Family

Asparagaceae

Authority

Yucca gloriosa L.

Flora category

Vascular – Exotic

Structural class

Herbs - Monocots

Habitat

Occur naturally on coastal dunes and shell mounds near the Atlantic, from North Carolina to north-east Florida.

Features

An erect evergreen shrub with swordlike leaves about 5 cm wide and 0.6-0.9 m long originating from a basal rosette. The leaves are bluish or grayish green with smooth margins and pointed tips. They tend to bend near the middle and arch downward. In summer mound-lily yucca puts up a showy 6-8 ft (1.8-2.4 m) spike of fragrant flowers that are white with purplish tinges, pendant and about 7.6 cm across. Mound-lily yucca stays in a stemless rounded clump 2-5 ft (0.6-1.5 m) across and about the same height for several years, but eventually develops a trunk or stem which elevates that clump of leaves above the ground as much as 1.8-2.4 m. In older plants the stem develops branches and each terminus has its own rosette of leaves.

Similar taxa

The cultivar, Nobilis has dark green leaves and Variegata has leaves with yellow margins.

Flowering

Summer

Flower colours

Violet/Purple, White

Propagation technique

Seed and stem and root fragments.

Year naturalised

1970

Origin

N. America

Etymology

yucca: An name derived from a language in the Carib group, denoting another plant and mistakenly applied to this taxa.

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