|Adam's needle or silk-grass|
Yucca filamentosa is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae native to the southeastern United States as far west as Louisiana and as far north as Maryland and West Virginia. Its common names include Adam's needle, common yucca, Spanish bayonet, bear-grass, needle-palm, silk-grass, and spoon-leaf yucca. The species is also reportedly naturalized in France, Italy and Turkey.
Usually trunkless, it is a multisuckering evergreen shrub with heads of 75 cm (30 in) long, filamentous, blue-green, strappy leaves. It is fully hardy, though in cultivation it benefits from a sheltered position away from winter winds. Y. filamentosa is readily distinguished from other yucca species by white, thready filaments along the leaf margins. Flower stems up to 3 m (10 ft) tall bear masses of pendulous cream flowers in early summer. They are pollinated by the yucca moth Tegeticula yuccasella.
Y. filamentosa is widely cultivated in mild temperate and subtropical climates as a broadleaved evergreen plant. 'Bright Edge', a dwarf cultivar with yellow-margined foliage and creamy flowers tinged with green, has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Other cultivars include:
- 'Golden Sword' - similar to 'Bright Edge', but larger.
- 'Ivory Tower' - creamy white flowers tinged with green.
- 'Color Guard' - broad yellow stripes all year, plus red stripes in the winter.
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- "Yucca filamentosa". Flora of North America.
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- Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
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- Marr, D. L., et al. (2000). Pollen dispersal in Yucca filamentosa (Agavaceae): the paradox of self-pollination behavior by Tegeticula yuccasella (Prodoxidae). American Journal of Botany 87(5), 670-77.
- Wunderlin, R. P. 1998. Guide to the Vascular Plants of Florida i–x, 1–806. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
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- Yucca filamentosa. Native American Ethnobotany. University of Michigan, Dearborn.
- Yucca filamentosa. USDA PLANTS.
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