3. Yucca flaccida Haw. (Spanish bayonet, Adam=s needle)

Pl. 22 f, g; Map 84

Y. filamentosa L.

Y.smalliana Fernald

Stems 5B20 cm long (B40 cm elsewhere). Leaves 15B80 cm long, 2B7 cm wide, somewhat glaucous, straight or lax, leathery, linear-lanceolate to linear-oblanceolate with a short, stout spine at the tip and white to tan, peeling, fibrous margins. Inflorescences panicles to 2.5 m long, erect, with the base of the flowering portion raised above the leaves. Tepals 5B7 cm long, ovate, the tips tapered to a point, green- or yellow-white, sometimes tinged pale purple. Seeds 6B8 mm wide. 2n=60. Late MayBAugust.

Introduced, in scattered counties (southeastern U.S.). Escaped from cultivation along roads and near old homesites.

The taxonomy of Yucca smalliana, Y. filamentosa, and Y. flaccida requires further study. Fernald (1944) treated this as a complex of three closely related species, but many subsequent authors have combined some or all of these taxa. Compounding this problem is the fact that different cultivars of these widespread ornamentals have become naturalized both within the native range of the complex and farther north and west, obscuring the native distributions.