Leaves 18′—32′ long, 1¼′—2½′ wide, erect, rigid, conspicuously narrowed above the light green base, widest above the middle, slightly concave on the upper surface, smooth, dark rich green, with a stiff dark red-brown tip, and horny finely and irregularly serrate margins; long-persistent. Flowers from June until August on stout pedicels, in nearly sessile glabrous or slightly pubescent panicles 18′—24′ long; perianth 1′—1½′ in length and 3′ or 4′ across when fully expanded, the segments ovate, thick and tumid toward the base, those of the outer rank rounded and often marked with purple at apex, the inner acuminate and short-pointed; stamens as long or sometimes a little longer than the light green ovary raised on a short stout stipe. Fruit ripening from August to October, elongated, ellipsoidal, hexagonal, 3′—4′ long, 1¼′—1½′ thick, light green when fully grown, and in ripening turning dark purple, the outer and inner coats forming a thick succulent mass of bitter-sweet juicy flesh, finally becoming black and drying on its stalk; seeds ¼′—⅓′ wide, about 1/16′ thick, with a thin narrow ring-like border to the rim.
A tree, occasionally 25° high, usually much smaller, with an erect or more or less inclining simple or branched trunk slightly swollen at base, and rarely more than 6′ in diameter; sometimes with numerous clustered stems. Bark near the base of the trunk thick, rough, dark brown, marked above by scars left by falling leaves.
Distribution. Sand dunes of the coast from North Carolina to eastern Louisiana; west of the Apalachicola River attaining its largest size and sometimes ranging inland through Pine-forests for thirty or forty miles; and in Yucatan (var. yucatana Trel.).
A common garden plant in all countries with a temperate climate, and long naturalized in the southern states far beyond the limits of its natural range, in some of the West Indian islands and on the Gulf coast of Mexico. Forms with leaves variously striped with white, yellow, and red or with recurving leaves are frequent in cultivation.
2. [Yucca Treculeana] Carr. Spanish Bayonet. Spanish Dagger.
Leaves 2½°—4° long, 2′—3¼′ wide, slightly or not at all contracted above the dark red lustrous base, concave, stiff, rigid, dark blue-green, rough on the lower surface, nearly smooth on the upper, with a short stout dark red-brown tip, and dark brown margins roughened by minute deciduous teeth and ultimately separating into slender dark fibres; persistent for many years, the dead leaves hanging closely appressed against the trunk below the terminal crown of closely imbricated living leaves. Flowers in March and April on slender pedicels, in dense many-flowered glabrous or puberulous panicles 2°—4° long and raised on short stout stalks; perianth 1′—2′ long, 2′—4′ in diameter when fully expanded, with narrow elongated ovate-lanceolate to ovate segments, ¼′ wide, acute, thin and delicate, furnished at apex with a conspicuous tuft of short pale hairs; filaments slightly papillose, about as long as the prismatic ovary gradually narrowed above and crowned by the deeply divided stigmatic lobes. Fruit ripening in the summer, 3′—4′ long, about 1′ thick, dark reddish brown or ultimately black, with thin succulent sweetish flesh; seeds about ⅛′ wide, nearly 1/16′ thick, with a narrow border to the rim.
A tree, occasionally 25°—30° high, with a trunk sometimes 2° in diameter and numerous stout wide-spreading branches; usually smaller and often forming broad low thickets 4°—5° tall. Bark on old trunks ¼′—½′ thick, dark red-brown and broken into thin oblong plates covered by small irregular closely appressed scales. Wood light brown, fibrous, spongy, heavy, difficult to cut and work.
Distribution. Shores of Matagorda Bay, southward through western Texas into Nuovo Leon, and through the valley of the Rio Grande to the eastern base of the mountains of western Texas; forming open stunted forests on the coast dunes at the mouth of the Rio Grande; farther from the coast often spreading into great impenetrable thickets.