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Yucca & Sotol Gallery

Lily Family

Yucca are spiny desert plants that most people refer to as cactus.  They are not cactus but a drought tolerant lily.  Some of these plants require a specific animal (bug, bee, bat) for pollination.

Agavaceae - Agaves family (part of the Lily family)

Soapweed Yucca (Beargrass) Yucca glauca

Each flower about 1-2" wide in a wide 2 feet tall cluster on a 3-8 foot tall stalk.  Leaves of plant at base are 1-2 feet long.  They are rounded on the back and cupped on the upper side.  Leaf edges have white hairs.  Seed pods are green turning black as they ripen.  The roots were used to make soap.  Spike flowers and seeds are edible.  The spiny leaf tip is a needle with thread attached.

Photos taken in Taylor County, Texas, May 2004

(Native of Texas)

Similar Species

Arkansas Yucca Yucca arkansana

Louisiana Yucca (Gulf Coast Yucca) Yucca louisianensis

Downy flower stalk.  Leaves have white frayed edges and twist.  Occurs east of the Blackland Prairies, Northeast Texas, Louisiana, some into Arkansas and Oklahoma.  Y. louisianensis is considered by some authorities to be a subspecies of Y. arkansana while others consider Y. freemanii and Y. arkansana to be synonyms for Y. louisianensis.  Y. louisianensis is closely related to Y. necopina.

(Native of Texas)

Freeman Yucca Yucca freemanii (Y. arkansana ssp. freemanii)

The leaves are soft and flexible, and the margins have a few, usually long, white threads. The stalk is stemless.  Grows in Northeast Texas in red sandy-clay soils and dry sandy uplands.

(Native of Texas)

Twist-leaf Yucca Yucca rupicola

Leaves are wider and more grass-like than most Yucca.  Leaf edges have "teeth" instead of hair.  Stalk is dark brown.  Flowers are not in as thick a cluster on the stalk.

(Native of Texas)

Agavaceae - Agaves family (part of the Lily family)

Glen Rose Yucca Yucca necopina

Flower stalk can be a single 9 foot tall narrow cluster or have many branches.  Leaves have white margins with white curly threads.  2 feet long leaves are an asymmetrical rosette at base.  Once thought to be a hybrid of Y. pallida and Y. arkansana.

Photos taken in Taylor County, Texas, June 2004

(Native of Texas)

Agavaceae - Agaves family (part of the Lily family)

Red Yucca Hesperaloe parviflora

Flower stalk is narrow with sparse tube-like flowers.  Leaves are at base only, 2 foot long, very narrow, arching, and rolled.  Leaf edges have long threads.

Photos taken in Taylor County, Texas, May 2005

(purchased, Native of Texas)

Agavaceae - Agaves family (part of the Lily family)

Spanish Boyonet (Torrey's Yucca) Yucca torreyi (Y. baccata var. macrocarpa, Y. macrocarpa)

Wide flower clusters are 2-3 tall.  Leaves are 3-4 foot long and very stiff, like daggers.  Plant grows 10-20 feet tall with an18" wide trunk.  Trunk can be single or multiple, occasionally branched.

Photos taken in Taylor County, Texas, May 2005

(purchased, Native of Texas but not of Taylor Co.)

Similar Species

Faxon Yucca (Spanish Dagger) Yucca faxoniana

Leaves are not as long.  Shower cluster has a short stalk.

Spanish Dagger (Trecul Yucca) Yucca treculeana

Leaves were made into rope or thatch.  Trunks were used as posts.  Blossoms are edible, cooked like cabbage.

(Native to south Texas)

Carneros Giant Yucca (Giant-Dagger) Yucca carnerosana (Y. australis, Samulea carnerosana)

Agavaceae - Agaves family (part of the Lily family)

Texas Sotol (Green Sotol) Dasylirion texanum

Long leaves have hooked thorny margin.  Flower spike about 15 feet long.  Missed the flower.  Fruit about 3/8" wide and three sided.  Base is a short trunk.  This plant covers acres of land.

Photos taken in Val Verde County, Texas, August 2005

(Native of Texas)

Similar Species

Desert Spoon Dasylirion wheeleri

Similar but larger.  Leaves twist.

(Native of Texas)

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