Appearance
"Yucca baccata" is recognized by having leaves 50–76 cm long with a blue-green color, and short or nonexistent trunks. It flowers in the spring, starting in April to July depending on locality, and the flowers range from 5 to 13 cm long, white to cream with purple shades. The flower stalk is not especially tall, typically 1–1.5 meters. The seeds are rough, black, wingless, 3–8 mm long and wide, 1–2 mm thick; they ripen in 6–8 weeks. The indehiscent fleshy fruit is 8–18 cm long and 6 cm across, cylindrical, and tastes similar to sweet potato.It is a larval host to the ursine giant skipper, yucca giant skipper, and various yucca moths. After feeding, the skippers pupate in the yucca's roots.
Naming
"Yucca baccata" has been divided into three subspecies:⤷ "Yucca baccata" subsp. "baccata"—Datil Yucca, Banana Yucca
⤷ "Yucca baccata" subsp. "thornberi" Hochstätter—Thornber's Yucca
⤷ "Yucca baccata" subsp. "vespertina" Hochstätter—Mohave Datil Yucca
The species gets its common name "banana yucca" from its banana-shaped fruit. The specific epithet "baccata" means 'with berries'. Banana yucca is closely related to the "Yucca schidigera", the Mojave yucca, with which it is interspersed where their ranges overlap; hybrids between them occur.
Distribution
The plant is known from the Great Basin, the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan Deserts, plus the "Arizona/New Mexico Mountains ecoregion" and lower, southern parts of the "Rocky Mountains". It occurs primarily in the states of Utah, California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas in the United States, and the state of Chihuahua in Mexico. It can be found in several habitat types including Pinyon-Juniper, desert grassland, Creosote bush scrub, Sagebrush, and Ponderosa pine colonies at elevations generally between 1,500 and 2,500 meters.Habitat
It is associated with "Yucca schidigera", "Yucca brevifolia", "Yucca arizonica", "Yucca faxoniana", "Agave utahensis", and other "Agave" species. It can be found among "Sclerocactus", "Pediocactus", "Navajoa", and "Toumeya" species."Yucca baccata" occurs in a large area of the North American deserts and exhibits much variation across its range. "Yucca baccata" specimens from the higher, mountainous regions of the Rocky Mountains is winterhardy and tolerates extreme conditions.
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