Yucca faxoniana (Trel.) Sarg.
Family: Asparagaceae
Eve's-Needle,  more...
[Samuela carnerosana Trel.,  more...]
Yucca faxoniana image

Plants solitary, erect, arborescent, 2.5-6.9 m, including inflorescence. Stems 1, simple or with 2-4 branches, to 5.1 m, average diam. 32 cm. Leaf blade erect, yellowish green, 43-115 × 3.1-8.4 cm, rigid, smooth, glabrous, margins conspicuous, curling, filiferous, brown. Inflorescences erect, paniculate, often with proximal branches arising beyond rosettes, broadly ovoid, 5.5-25.5 dm, glabrous; peduncle 0.3-0.6 m. Flowers pendent, 4.4-12.4 cm; perianth campanulate; tepals connate basally into floral cup 1-32 mm, white to greenish white, ovate, 3.9-10.8 cm; filaments averaging 2.2 cm from base of tepals, glabrous; anthers 1-6 mm; pistil 2.8-8 × 0.7 cm; ovary ca. 4.5-5 times longer than wide; style 4.5 mm; stigmas distinct. Fruits pendent, baccate, indehiscent, elongate, 3.6-13.6 × 1.8 -3.6 cm, fleshy, succulent. Seeds black, 7.7 mm diam., 2.9 mm thick, smooth.

Flowering late winter--spring. Rocky slopes, flat plains; 800--2100 m; Tex.; Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila).

Trelease described the genus Samuela based on two species, Samuela faxoniana and S. carnerosana. K. H. Clary´s DNA study (1997) shows them to be closely related but genetically distinct.

Yucca faxoniana is often used for landscaping in arid and semiarid regions of Texas and New Mexico.