Plants forming small colonies, acaulescent or caulescent; rosettes usually small. Stems decumbent, short, to 0.2 m. Leaf blade mostly yellowish green, flattened, grasslike, concavo-convex, widest near middle, 20-60(-70) × 0.7-2(-2.5) cm, flexible, margins entire, curled, filiferous, apex long, tapering to short spines 1.6-3.2 mm. Inflorescences racemose, occasionally paniculate proximally, arising within rosettes or at rosette level, 3-6(-8) dm, glabrous; bracts erect; peduncle scapelike, 0.2-0.5(-0.6) m, 0.3-0.7(-1.3) cm diam. Flowers pendent; perianth globose; tepals distinct, greenish white, elliptic to orbicular or oblong, 3.2-6.5 × 2-5 cm; filaments 1.3-2.5 cm; anthers 3.2 mm; pistil 2.5-2.8(-3.2) cm; style dark green, 7-13 mm, tumid; stigmas lobed. Fruits erect, capsular, dehiscent, oblong-cylindric to obovoid, constricted near middle, stout, 4-6.5(-7) × 2-3 cm, dehiscence septicidal. Seeds dull black, thin, ca. 1 cm diam.

Flowering spring. Gravelly soil, limestone outcrops, rocky hillsides, prairies; 100--400 m; Ark., Kans., Mo., Okla., Tex.

Yucca arkansana shows considerable variation, particularly in the eastern part of its range. S. D. McKelvey (1938-1947) described var. paniculata and suggested that it is an eastern extension of the species with a taller, paniculate, and pubescent inflorescence. Yucca arkansana approaches Y. louisianensis, which we have reduced to synonymy under Y. flaccida. K. H. Clary´s (1997) DNA consensus tree places Y. arkansana and Y. louisianensis adjacent to one another.