2. Yucca L. (soapweed, Spanish
bayonet)
Vegetative stems short or reduced and not
apparent (forming tall trunks elsewhere), sometimes appearing woody. Leaves
leathery at maturity, stiff or lax, lanceolate to linear, sometimes
spine-tipped, sometimes with peeling, fibrous margins. Inflorescences short- to
long-stalked panicles or racemes. Tepals free. Stamens usually included, the
anthers sagittate. Carpels with the ovary superior, the style short, the stigma
3-lobed to nearly entire. Capsules cylindric or bluntly 3-angled, 6-locular
(3-locular elsewhere). Thirty-five species, North America, mainly in the
Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts.