Product Code Database
Yucca baccata ( datil yucca or banana yucca, also known as Spanish bayonet and broadleaf yucca) (2025). 9781402767159, Sterling. ISBN 9781402767159 is a common species of yucca native to the 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 is also reported in the wild in Colombia. Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
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.
As of 2023 the status of these subspecies is uncertain. In Plants of the World Online (POWO) and World Flora Online only Yucca baccata var. brevifolia and the autonym are listed as accepted.
Several botanical synonyms are listed by POWO for each of the species recognized there. Yucca baccata var. baccata:
Yucca baccata var. brevifolia:
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.
The plant 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.
The Southern Paiute dried the fruits for use during the winter. It is still a popular food amongst Mexican Indians. The flowers are often eaten by rural residents.
Ancestral Puebloan peoples used the fibers derived from the leaves to create sandals and cordage, and the root was used as soap, although with less frequency than that of Yucca elata.
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