101 YUCATAN TREES INDEX

SPANISH BAYONET

Spanish Bayonets, Yucca aloifolia, are yuccas, same as Joshua Trees of the US southwestern desert. That's one below.

SPANISH BAYONET

Typical of Spanish Bayonets are their brown, dried-up "shags" of old leaves gathered like grass skirts below the stiff, sharp-pointed leaves at the top of each trunk.

Below, you see the Spanish Bayonet's typical yucca flowers.

SPANISH BAYONET flowers

Spanish Bayonet is native to US coastal areas from North Carolina to Louisiana, as well as the Caribbean and eastern Mexico. It's "gone wild" in much of the US Southeast and elsewhere. Several cultivars have been developed, including 'Marginata' with yellow-margined leaves.

There's a similar yucca, known as Spanish Dagger, Yucca gloriosa, native to US coastal areas from North Carolina to Florida, also much planted and escaped, and likely to be confused with Spanish Bayonet. However, that species, Spanish Dagger, is more branched, presents an overall moundlike appearance instead of our plant's tall-standing one, plus its leaves are bluish-green instead of our plant's dark green.

101 YUCATAN TREES INDEX