Yucca rupicola


Yucca rupicola SCHEELE in Linnaea, 23: 143 1850.

Synonyms:
Yucca tortifolia LINDHEIMER EX ENGELMANN in Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis, 3: 48 (1873).
Yucca rupicola var. tortifolia ENGELMANN in Trans. Acad. Sci. St. .Louis, 3: 48 (1873).

Clones, and Hybrids:
Yucca X aletrodes (Yucca rupicola x gloriosa) hybrid by Carl Sprenger.
Yucca X Sokrates (Yucca rupicola x recurvifolia) hybrid by Carl Sprenger.
Yucca X liliacea (Yucca filamentosa x rupicola) hybrid by Carl Sprenger.
Yucca X Psyche (Yucca filamentosa x rupicola) hybrid by Carl Sprenger.
Yucca X Treleasei (Yucca filamentosa x rupicola) hybrid by Carl Sprenger.
Yucca X amonea (Yucca flaccida x rupicola) hybrid by Carl Sprenger.
Yucca X Atropos (Yucca flaccida x rupicola) hybrid by Carl Sprenger.
Yucca X paradoxa (Yucca flaccida x rupicola) hybrid by Carl Sprenger.
Yucca X smaragdina (Yucca aloifolia x rupicola) hybrid by Carl Sprenger.
The above hybrids may be lost in cultivation, but if any of the readers know of or has a plant, please let me know, I am VERY interested in getting such hybrids.

Type location:
Sheele's type specimen was collected near New Braunfels, Texas, by Lindheimer in 1845, but this herbarium specimen is lost.

Neotype:
Hochstaetter Fh1179.91, Stonewall area Texas (deposited in SRP)

Distribution:
Endemic to South Eastern Edwards Plateau, in limestone areas at 300 - 800 m.

Short description of the species:
Plants acaulescent, forming small or larger open clumps of rosettes of with few leaves. Leaves twisting, green to yellowish green, waxy, 25 - 60 cm long, 2 to 3 cm wide, margin of the leaves dark olive-green with short sharp "teeth's".


Leaf margin of Yucca rupicola.
July 2000.
Photo by Benny Moeller Jensen ©2000-2008

Inflorescens 150 to 300 cm tall (occasionally 400 cm tall). Scape held high above the leaves 60 to 280 cm long occasionally more!. Branchlets 10 to 20 cm long. Flowers campanulate (bell shaped), 6 to 8 cm long, white to greenish cream and sometimes tinged with purple. Fruit 4,5 to 8 cm long, 1,5 to 3 cm thick. Seeds black dull, quite small 0,4 to 0,6 x 0,2 to 0,3 cm.

Hardiness:
Yucca rupicola is not hardy in Denmark, but can be grown inside in an unheated greenhouse, I have a plant in such location and the plant is healthy, it flowered for the first time in the summer of 2000 (sown 1992). I have tried growing it in a raised bed, that are protected against winter moisture from October to May, but the plant didn't survive the cold winter of 1995-96.

Related species:
Yucca pallida
Yucca reverchoni
Yucca rostrata
Yucca cernua, status not sure, maybe a natural hybrid with genes from Yucca rupicola or Yucca pallida?
Yucca thompsoniana
Yucca pallida

Notes:
The new growth is quite distinctive from Yucca pallida while the leaf starts to grow from way down in the rosette (almost like on a Bromelia!!) and in Yucca pallida the leaf grows as a spike in the center of the rosette and dos not loosen it from the "spike" until it's almost grown to it's full length.

My own plants:
(There are thumbnailed pictures on the pages with linked text)

#388A Yucca rupicola Texas, Kerr Co., sown 1992, seeds from Christa's Cactus #2013.
                                     Grown in a pot that are stored the unheated greenhouse during the winter months.
#388B Yucca rupicola Texas, Kerr Co., sown 1992, seeds from Christa's Cactus #2013.
                                     Grown inside in an unheated greenhouse
#1495 Yucca rupicola, Texas, Stone Mt. fh1179.92, s2004

Pictures:
#388B Yucca rupicola
Kerr Co.,Texas.
July 22nd.2000.
Photo by Benny M.Jensen ©2000
#388B Yucca rupicola
Kerr Co.,Texas.
July 22nd.2000.
Photo by Benny M.Jensen ©2000
#388B Yucca rupicola
Kerr Co.,Texas.
June 16th.2009. 
Photo by Elena Y. G. Jensen ©2009
#1495 Yucca rupicola
Texas, Stone Mt.
fh1179.92, s2004
Photo by Benny M.Jensen ©2006

Reference:
BAKER in Gard. Chron. 1870, 828;
BAKER in Jour. Linn. Soc. Botany, 18: 222 (1881) ;
BAKER in Bot. Mag. 117: t. 7172 (1891).
ENGELMANN in Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis, 3: 48 (1873).
FERGUSON, D.J. email to hardycacti_etc, 15 Nov 1999
HOCHSTAETTER, F., Succulenta, Netherlands, Vol. 78 no. 5, 207-217, Yucca (Agavaceae) part 5,
HOCHSTAETTER, F; (2000), YUCCA (vol. I): 26-27 (Yucca rupicola)
KUNTH, Enum. Plant. 4:270 (1833-1850).
SCHEELE in Linnaea, 23: 143 1850.
SPRENGER, Carl., Mitteilungen Deutschen Dendrol. Gesell. 29: 96-138 + pls.: 21-22. (1920)
TRELEASE in Rep. Missouri Bot. Gard. 3:163, t. 51 (1892): 13: 67, tt. 38, 84, fig. 2, 93, fig. 2 (1902).
The Flora of Texas Consortium Vascular Plants Endemic to Texas (on www)



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