Yucca faxoniana
{{Short description|Species of shrub}}
{{Speciesbox
|status = LC
|status_system = IUCN3.1
| name=Spanish dagger
| taxon = Yucca faxoniana
| image = Yucca torreyi fh 1180.18 TX B.jpg
| image_caption = Blooming, in Chihuahuan Desert habitat.
| authority = Sarg.{{cite web|title=Yucca faxoniana|url=http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/acceptedRef.do?name_id=291753|work=World Checklist of Selected Plant Families|publisher=The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew|access-date=27 February 2012}}
| synonyms = *Samuela faxonia Trel.
- Samuela faxoniana Trel.
- Sarcoyucca australis (Trel.) Linding.
- Sarcoyucca macrocarpa (Torr.) Linding.
- Yucca australis Trel. nom. illeg.
- Yucca baccata var. macrocarpa Torr.
- Yucca macrocarpa (Torr.) Coville nom. illeg.
- Yucca torreyi Shafer nom. illeg.
}}
Yucca faxoniana is a bladed evergreen shrub of the genus Yucca. It is known by the common names Faxon yucca,{{GRIN | access-date = 2 January 2018}} Spanish dagger, and giant dagger.{{Cite book|title=Little Big Bend : Common, Uncommon, and Rare Plants of Big Bend National Park|last=Morey|first=Roy|date=2008|publisher=Texas Tech University Press|isbn=9780896726130|location=Lubbock|pages=40|oclc=80359503}}
Description
The plant generally is a multitrunked shrub {{convert|3|-|10|ft|m}} in height. They can be single-trunked and tree-like to {{convert|20|ft|m}} tall. The bladed leaves range from {{convert|2|to|4.5|ft|m|1}} in length. The flowers, ivory to creamy white and bell-shaped, are on a flower head up to {{convert|2|ft|m|1}} long.
Flowers, pollinated by moths of the genus Tegeticula, bloom typically in April. The plant produces sweet, pulpy, oblong fruits.
Taxonomy
The species has been called Yucca torreyi – a name given in 1908 by John Shafer. The epithet commemorates John Torrey, a 19th-century American botanist who designated this as a new variety in 1859.[http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=YUTO NPIN — Johnson]. Accessed September 15, 2012 Y. torreyi is now regarded as an illegitimate name; however, sources differ as to the correct name, using either Yucca treculeana Carrière{{Citation |date=1982 |editor-last=Flora of North America Editorial Committee |contribution=Yucca treculeana |title=Flora of North America |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242102078 }} or Y. faxoniana.
Distribution
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, also in 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.{{cite book|first=Elbert L.|last=Little Jr.|title=Atlas of United States Trees|volume=3 (Minor Western Hardwoods)|year=1976|publisher=US Government Printing Office|lccn=79-653298|oclc=4053799|entry-url=https://archive.org/details/atlasofunitedsta1314litt/page/n317/mode/1up|entry=Map 209, Yucca torreyi}}
Uses
Native Americans used the fruit as a food source—raw, roasted, dried, and ground into meals. They also used the plant leaves as a fiber in basketry, cloth, mats, ropes, and sandals.{{cite book |last=Little |first=Elbert L. |title=The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees: Western Region |year=1994 |orig-year=1980 |publisher=Knopf |isbn=0394507614 |edition=Chanticleer Press|page=335}} The roots were used as a red pattern element in Apache baskets.[http://herb.umd.umich.edu/herb/search.pl?searchstring=Yucca+torreyi University of Michigan - Dearborn: Native American Ethnobotany — Yucca torreyi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304190615/http://herb.umd.umich.edu/herb/search.pl?searchstring=Yucca+torreyi |date=2016-03-04 }} Accessed 9.15.2012
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category|Yucca faxoniana}}
- [http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=YUTO USDA Plants Profile: Yucca torreyi ]
- [http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=YUTO Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Yucca torreyi.]
{{Taxonbar|from=Q145189}}
Category:Flora of the Chihuahuan Desert
Category:Flora of Northeastern Mexico
Category:Flora of the Southwestern United States
Category:Flora of Chihuahua (state)