| Spanish dagger | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Blooming, in Chihuahuan Desert habitat. | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Order: | Asparagales |
| Family: | Asparagaceae |
| Subfamily: | Agavoideae |
| Genus: | Yucca |
| Species: | Y. faxoniana |
| Binomial name | |
| Yucca faxoniana | |
| Synonyms [3] | |
| |
Yucca faxoniana is a bladed evergreen shrub of the genus Yucca . It is known by the common names Faxon yucca, [4] Spanish dagger, [4] and giant dagger. [5]
The plant generally is a multitrunked shrub 3–10 feet (0.91–3.05 m) in height. They can be single trunked and tree-like to 20 feet (6.1 m) tall. The bladed leaves range from 2 to 4.5 feet (0.6 to 1.4 m) in length. The flowers, ivory to creamy white and bell shaped, are on a flower head up to 2 feet (0.6 m) long. [6]
Flowers, pollinated by moths of the genus Tegeticula , bloom typically in April. [5] The plant produces sweet, pulpy, oblong fruits. [5]
The species has been called Yucca torreyi – a name given in 1908 by John Shafer. [2] The epithet commemorates John Torrey, a 19th-century American botanist who designated this as a new variety in 1859. [6] Y. torreyi is now regarded as an illegitimate name; however sources differ as to the correct name, using either Yucca treculeanaCarrière [7] or Y. faxoniana. [2]
Yucca faxoniana is native to the Chihuahuan Desert region of northern Mexico, southern New Mexico, and southwestern Texas. Its range is centered around Big Bend National Park in the central Rio Grande valley in the Chihuahuan Desert. It is found mainly in the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Coahuila, but also minor locales of Durango and Nuevo León. It does not occur in the upper Rio Grande Basin section in central New Mexico, nor the lower third of the Rio Grande Valley towards the Gulf of Mexico. [4] [8]
Native Americans used the fruit as a food source—raw, roasted, or dried and ground into meal. [9] They also used the plant leaves as a fiber in basketry, cloth, mats, ropes, and sandals. [9] [6] The roots were used as a red pattern element in Apache baskets. [10]
Yucca brevifolia is a plant species belonging to the genus Yucca. It is tree-like in habit, which is reflected in its common names: Joshua tree, yucca palm, tree yucca, and palm tree yucca.
The Chihuahuan Desert is a desert and ecoregion designation covering parts of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States. It occupies much of West Texas, the middle and lower Rio Grande Valley, the lower Pecos Valley in New Mexico, and a portion of southeastern Arizona, as well as the central and northern portions of the Mexican Plateau. It is bordered on the west by the Sonoran Desert and the extensive Sierra Madre Occidental range, along with northwestern lowlands of the Sierra Madre Oriental range. On the Mexican side, it covers a large portion of the state of Chihuahua, along with portions of Coahuila, north-eastern Durango, the extreme northern part of Zacatecas, and small western portions of Nuevo León. With an area of about 501,896 km2 (193,783 sq mi), it is the largest desert in North America.
Yucca schidigera, also known as the Mojave yucca or Spanish dagger, is a flowering plant that is native to the Mojave Desert, Chihuahuan Desert and Sonoran Desert of southeastern California, Baja California, New Mexico, southern Nevada and Arizona.
Yucca elata is a perennial plant, with common names that include soaptree, soaptree yucca, soapweed, and palmella. It is native to southwestern North America, in the Sonoran Desert and Chihuahuan Desert in the United States, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah, and northern Mexico. Yucca elata is widely distributed, although its population appears to be decreasing.
Robinia neomexicana, the New Mexican, New Mexico, Southwest, desert, pink, or rose locust), is a shrub or small tree in the subfamily Faboideae of the family Fabaceae.
Agave lechuguilla is an Agave species found only in the Chihuahuan Desert, where it is an indicator species. It typically grows on calcareous soils. The plant flowers once in its life and then dies. The flowers are a source of nutrients for insects, bats, and some birds.
Spanish bayonet or Spanish dagger is a common name for several plants and may refer to:
Fraxinus velutina, the velvet ash, Arizona ash or Modesto ash, is a species of Fraxinus native to southwestern North America, in the United States from southern California east to Texas, and in Mexico from northern Baja California east to Coahuila and Nuevo León.
Diospyros texana is a species of persimmon that is native to central, south and west Texas and southwest Oklahoma in the United States, and eastern Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas in northeastern Mexico. Common names include Texas persimmon, Mexican persimmon and the more ambiguous "black persimmon". It is known in Spanish as chapote, chapote manzano, or chapote prieto, all of which are derived from the Nahuatl word tzapotl. That word also refers to several other fruit-bearing trees.
Celtis reticulata, with common names including netleaf hackberry, western hackberry, Douglas hackberry, netleaf sugar hackberry, palo blanco, and acibuche, is a small- to medium-sized deciduous tree native to western North America.
Yucca × schottii is a plant species in the genus Yucca, native to southern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and the northern parts of Sonora and Chihuahua. The common names are Schott's yucca, hoary yucca, and mountain yucca. The "×" in the name indicates that this is a nothospecies, regarded as being a natural hybrid between two other species. In this case, Yucca × schottii is believed to have originated as a hybrid between Y. baccata and Y. madrensis. Yucca × schottii is firmly established and does reproduce freely in the wild.
Eysenhardtia texana, commonly known as Texas kidneywood, bee-brush, or vara dulce, is a species of small flowering tree in the legume family, Fabaceae. It is found from south-central Texas south to northern San Luis Potosí in the Rio Grande Valley region of south Texas–Northeastern Mexico, and the species ranges into the eastern Chihuahuan Desert areas of Coahuila.
Dasylirion leiophyllum is a species of flowering plant in the asparagus family known by the common names green sotol, smooth-leaf sotol, and smooth sotol. It is native to North America, where it occurs in Chihuahua and Coahuila in Mexico and New Mexico and western Texas in the United States. It was first collected by Valery Havard in 1880 and was described by William Trelease in 1911.
The Sierra del Carmen, also called the Sierra Maderas del Carmen, is a northern finger of the Sierra Madre Oriental in the state of Coahuila, Mexico. The Sierra begins at the Rio Grande at Big Bend National Park and extends southeast for about 72 kilometres (45 mi), reaching a maximum elevation of 2,720 metres (8,920 ft). Part of the Sierra del Carmen is protected in the Maderas del Carmen Biosphere Reserve as part of a bi-national effort to conserve a large portion of the Chihuahua Desert in Mexico and Texas.
Physaria thamnophila is a rare species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by the common name Zapata bladderpod. It is native to Texas in the United States, where it is known from Zapata and Starr Counties. The plant is threatened by the loss and degradation of its habitat. It is federally listed as an endangered species.
Yucca angustissima, the narrowleaf yucca, is a plant in the family Agavaceae, known as the "narrow-leaved yucca." It is native to Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah, but grown elsewhere as an ornamental.
Yucca carnerosana, commonly known as the giant Spanish dagger, is a species of North American plant in the asparagus family. In the United States, it is confined to only a few counties in western Texas. The species is, however, widely distributed in northern Mexico. It has a wide range and is abundant, and although it has local threats, its population appears to be stable overall.
Yucca thompsoniana, the Thompson's yucca, is a plant in the family Asparagaceae, native to Texas, Chihuahua and Coahuila. Other names for the plant include Beaked yucca, Soyate and Palmita.
Yucca treculeanaCarrière is a plant in the family Asparagaceae, native to Texas, New Mexico and Coahuila. Common names include Spanish dagger, Spanish bayonet and Don Quixote's lance.
Yucca aloifolia is the type species for the genus Yucca. Common names include aloe yucca, dagger plant, and Spanish bayonet. It grows in sandy soils, especially on sand dunes along the coast.
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