Yucca recurvifolia


CURVE LEAF
SOFT LEAF YUCCA
WEEPING YUCCA

Yucca recurvifolia, cultivated in Budapest Botanical Garden in Hungary
This photo is of a cultivated plant at Budapest Botanical Garden in Hungary,
Photo by Andrew Treer, Budapest ©1999-2008.

Yucca recurvifolia Salisbury
Yucca recurvifolia Salisb. 1807, Parad. Lond. : tab. 31

Synonyms:
Yucca gloriosa forma recurvifolia (Salisbury) Voss, Vilmorin Blumengarten (ed. 3) 1: 1057 (1896)
Yucca gloriosa var. recurvifolia (Salisbury) Engelmann
Yucca pendula Groenland, Revue Horticole 7: 433, fig. 128 (1858)
Yucca japonica Hort
Yucca recurva Haw., 1812, Syn. Pl. Succul. : 69

Clones and Hybrids:
Yucca recurvifolia marginata (yellow edge).
Yucca recurvifolia glauca
Yucca recurvifolia variegata
Yucca ' Danica '
Yucca recurvifolia ' Dolomiten '
Yucca recurvifolia ' Schwarzwald '
Yucca recurvifolia 'Grubenlampe '
Yucca recurvifolia ' Lothringen '
Yucca recurvifolia 'Red Bells', Name seen on Ebay August 2011, seller unknown, but located in Steinau, Germany.
Yucca recurvifolia ' Rheintal '
Yucca 'thompsonifolia HORT, (2002) in Yucca II, Hochstätter hybrid (Yucca thompsoniana x Yucca recurvifolia).
Yucca X amabilis, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca flaccida glaucescens x recurvifolia
Yucca X Aurora, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca filamentosa x recurvifolia
Yucca X caelestis, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca flaccida glaucescens x recurvifolia
Yucca X campanulata, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca flaccida glaucescens x recurvifolia
Yucca X Ceres, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca filamentosa x recurvifolia
Yucca X Cybele, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca filamentosa media x recurvifolia
Yucca X Darwinii, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca gloriosa plicata x recurvifolia
Yucca X Diana, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca treculeana canaliculata X Yucca recurvifolia (= Yucca treculeana x Yucca recurvifolia)
Yucca X Elwesiana, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca treculeana canaliculata X Yucca recurvifolia (= Yucca treculeana x Yucca recurvifolia)
Yucca X exsultans, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca filamentosa x recurvifolia
Yucca X Federicus Cäsar, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca filamentosa x recurvifolia
Yucca X Fosterana, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca treculeana canaliculata X Yucca recurvifolia (= Y. treculeana x Y. recurvifolia)
Yucca X fulgens, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca filamentosa media x recurvifolia
Yucca X grandis, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca flexilis x recurvifolia
Yucca X grasilis, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca flaccida glaucescens x recurvifolia
Yucca X Heliodorus, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca aloifolia gigantea x recurvifolia
Yucca X Imperator, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca filamentosa media x recurvifolia
Yucca X imperialis, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca filamentosa media x recurvifolia
Yucca X Klotho, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca filamentosa media x recurvifolia
Yucca X Koelleana, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca filamentosa media x recurvifolia
Yucca X lanceolata, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca filamentosa x recurvifolia
Yucca X Lachesis, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca filamentosa x recurvifolia
Yucca X Lawrensceana, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca treculeana canaliculata X Yucca recurvifolia (= Y. treculeana x Y. recurvifolia)
Yucca X Magnolia, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca filamentosa x recurvifolia
Yucca X Milton, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca filamentosa media x recurvifolia
Yucca X Passiflora, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca filamentosa media x recurvifolia
Yucca X peregrina, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca filamentosa x recurvifolia
Yucca X princeps, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca filamentosa x recurvifolia
Yucca X purpurascens, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca filamentosa media x recurvifolia
Yucca X regia, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca filamentosa media x recurvifolia
Yucca X Sanderana, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca filamentosa media x recurvifolia
Yucca X Sokrates, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca rupicola x recurvifolia
Yucca X superba, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca flexilis x recurvifolia
Yucca X Tenoreana, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca filamentosa media x recurvifolia
Yucca X Victor Emmanuel II (Vittorio Emanuele II), Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca aloifolia purpurea x recurvifolia
Yucca X victorialis, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca filamentosa media x recurvifolia
Yucca X Virgilius, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca filamentosa media x recurvifolia
Yucca X viridiflora, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca filamentosa x recurvifolia
Yucca X Willmottiana, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca filamentosa x recurvifolia
Yucca X Wittmackiana, Carl Sprenger 1920, Yucca filamentosa media x recurvifolia

Type location:
Georgia

Distribution:
This species is probably a hybrid, so it might not have a natural distribution! Read notes further below.

Short description of the species:
Leaves: recurving, nearly flat, underside rough, 60 to 100 cm long, up to 5 cm wide, green, grey-green or bluish green with a short brown spine, the leaf tip has a short brown to black spine.
Inflorescence: it usually bloom in April/May but occasionally plants may bloom in September/October, this weird behavior could be because the species is a hybrid of either Yucca aloifolia X Yucca filamentosa or Yucca aloifolia X Yucca flaccida the latter being the most obvious suggestion. The flowers are held above the leaves and the Inflorescence can reach 150 cm in height.
Fruit: hang from the plant, or occasionally it hang at an angle below horizontal. The fruits are very hard and dry at maturity. The fruits rarely split open, and the seeds are difficult to get out from the fruit, this may also indicate that the species is a hybrid, since it's not "practical" to have a fruit that the seed can't get out of! And the fruits are a mix of those of Yucca aloifolia and those of the dehiscent-fruited species, which also indicate the suspected parentage!
Seeds: Black

Hardiness:
I have now tried three plants of this species in the open garden for 6+ years, and they all look great, they are actually growing a lot faster than I have expected. Plants grown in pots that are stored in the unheated greenhouse, are growing a lot slower, specially if they are grown in pots smaller than 15 liter. The only problem I  have noticed is that the leaves often, due to high humidity, is getting black spots, because of some kind of fungus infection, which only attack the oldest leaves. The plant will however quickly outgrow the infected leaves which I cut of in spring. The cutting of leaves might speed up the speed which the trunk is growing, so it actually helps the plant to look even greater.

Notes:
Yucca recurvifolia is like a Yucca gloriosa with floppy leaves, both are hybrid species of either Yucca aloifolia X Yucca filamentosa or Yucca aloifolia X Yucca flaccida the latter being the most obvious suggestion for Yucca recurvifolia.
It's quite possible that some of the plants cultivated as Yucca recurvifolia and Yucca gloriosa in Europe (and maybe abroad too), could be some of Sprenger's hybrids, and not the "natural" "species"!?! The last past 8 years I have been collecting Yucca recurvifolia, and most of them are not very alike, but it's still too soon for me to be sure of my suspicion!

Yucca recurvifolia is very fertile, and has been used to make many hybrids. Carl Sprenger is the person, whom is known to have has made most hybrids with this species. So far I have not been able to make any hybrids with this species, but I will continue to try this.

Pictures:


Yucca recurvifolia in Craig Howe's garden in Northern California.
Photo by Craig Howe ©2000-2008

--
Yucca recurvifolia in Jeannie Wray's garden near Dallas, Texas.
Photo by Jeannie Wray Copyright © 2001-2008.


Yucca recurvifolia own by Gurli & Christian Lorenzen, Horsens Denmark
Photo by Benny Møller Jensen Wray Copyright © 2002-2008.

Reference:

KUNTH, Enum. 4:272 (Yucca recurvifolia Salisbury)
SALISBURY,  Parad. t. 32. (Yucca recurvifolia Salisbury)
BAKER, J. G., Saunders Refug. Bot.  321. (Yucca recurvifolia Salisbury)
SYDOW, G. 1977, Kaktus 12(2):34(1977) 1 fig on pg. 31, (Yucca recurvifolia)
SYDOW, G. 1977, Kaktus 12(2):34(1977) (Yucca recurvifolia var. marginata)
SYDOW, G. 1977,  Kaktus 12(2):34(1977) (Yucca recurvifolia var. variegata)
PEDERSEN, P.B. 1986, Kaktus 21(4):81 1986, 1 fig. (Yucca ‘Victor Emmanuel II')
SALISBURY,  Parad. t. 31. (Yucca gloriosa var. recurvifolia Salisbury)
SPRENGER, Carl., Mitteilungen Deutschen Dendrol. Gesell. 29: 96-138 + pls.: 21-22. (1920)
BAKER, J. G., 1881, Linnean Society Bot. Journ. Vol. 18:225 (1881) (Yucca gloriosa var. recurvifolia Salisbury)
BAKER, J. G. 1881, Linnean Society Bot. Journ. Vol.. 18:225 (1881) (Yucca japonica Hort, as syn to Y. recurvifolia)

Im still working with this species and eventually I will add more accurate details to this page.



My own plants of Yucca recurvifolia

#816 Yucca recurvifolia
This plant I got from a friend in 1997. In the summer of 2000 I did make the first cuttings of it and the "mother" is now planted in a protected bed (the potted cuttings are stored inside the unheated greenhouse, from October to May)
I do not have a photo of this one yet.

#1298 Yucca recurvifolia

#1298 Yucca recurvifolia
This one is very new to me, I got it from Al Dribrell in California as a large cutting with many roots summer 1999. The leaves are more narrow and is a little more "bluish" than my other plants of this species. I grow it in a large pot, that are on the terrace during the summer and inside the unheated greenhouse during the winter, and I will have to grow this species for a few years before I can make a cutting and try it in the garden.
 

#1409 Yucca recurvifolia--#1409 Yucca recurvifolia
Photo by Jørgen Sørensen, Denmark ©2000-2008


#1409 Yucca recurvifolia, August 17th. 2003

Photo Benny Moeller Jensen ©2003-2008

#1409 Yucca recurvifolia
I got this one from my friend Jørgen in Skovlunde, Denmark, He has grown it for years, and his largest plant is 100 cm tall and has a trunk that are 10 cm thick, another of his plants are 130 wide.

#1451 Yucca recurvifolia (maybe yellow flowers!)
I got this one from P.C.O. Nørgaard, Sundby Mors, Denmark, in the summer of 2000.
His old plant has only flowered once, and this was during the winter, and at that time the plant was stored inside his basement, with no artificial light, so the flowers where white, but this could be because of the lack of sun light. I don't know what to think of this one, it has bloomed twice for me, and both times during the winter??? In the late fall of 2007 it has again started to make yet another flower bud.

#1450 Yucca recurvifolia marginata (yellow edge, variegated)
I got this one from P.C.O. Nørgaard, Sundby Mors, Denmark, in the summer of 2000. It's still a very small plant, so I can't write much about it yet.

#1439 Yucca recurvifolia.
This one is probably a form or a hybrid of  Yucca recurvifolia very much alike Yucca  ' Danica '. I got this one is from my friend Bjarne Kjempf, Løvel, Denmark, in the summer of 2000. He got it from an old man who had a 100 cm tall plant with a trunk 10 thick. The leaves are bluish-green. In pots it is a slow grower, but when planted into the ground in the garden it grow quite fast.

#1455 Yucca ' Danica '
This one is probably a form or a hybrid of  Yucca recurvifolia. I got this one from P.C.O. Nørgaard, Sundby Mors, Denmark, in the summer of 2000. He did get it from from the isle Samsø, Denmark, the story behind the plants is something like this; a sailor had it with him home from a one of his trips, but no one know from where he did get it. My plant is very small, and I hope to be able to propagate it, so it can be more known.

#1452 Yucca X Victor Emmanuel II (Vittorio Emanuele II)
Hybrid by Carl Sprenger, Yucca aloifolia purpurea x Yucca recurvifolia
I got this one from P.C.O. Nørgaard, Sundby Mors, Denmark, in the summer of 2000. It's still a very small plant, so I can't write much about it yet. It's hardy if grown in an unheated greenhouse, but in the garden it will die!
 
 

#192A  'Albuquerque Mystery I' (Yucca recurvifolia X glauca?)
#192B 'Albuquerque Mystery II' (Yucca recurvifolia X glauca?)



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