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Yucca or Spanish Bayonet
Yucca filamentosa
33.5499, -82.2572
Field Notes
Description:
Yucca filamentosa, commonly known as Adam's needle, is a medicinal plant native to eastern North America. Usually trunkless, Yucca filamentosa is a multisuckering plant with heads of 30 inch (75 cm) long, filamentous, blue-green, strappy leaves. The plant is fully hardy. Yucca filamentosa is readily identified from other Yucca species by white threads (filaments) on the leaf margins. Flower stems up to 10 ft (3 m) tall bear masses of pendulous cream flowers in early summer.
Habitat:
In the wild, Y. filamentosa is native to the southeastern United States, as far west as Louisiana and as far north as Virginia. However, it is widely cultivated and can be found naturalized outside its native range. This is a wild plant spotted at Heggies Rock near Appling (Columbia County), GA.
Notes:
It's also known as Adam's Needle. Yuccas are useful garden perennials because they bloom at night (nyctinasty). The creamy-white flowers fill with sap and lift petals to the darkening sky, then release a sweet odor (which reminds some as smelling of a toilet soap) that attracts the very small pollinator, the yucca moth. Yucca fruit can be cooked and eaten after the seeds are removed; the large petals are used in salads.
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