Yucca torreyi



Yucca torreyi cultivated in Craig Howe's garden northern California.
Photo by Craig Howe ©2000-2005

Yucca torreyi Shafer, in Britton & Shafer, N. Amer. Trees, pg. 157 fig. 117, 1908

Synonyms:
Yucca baccata var. australis, Engelmann  Acad.  Sci.  St.  Louis 3: 44 (1873)
Yucca baccata var. macrocarpa Torrey,  in Emory, U.S. and Mex. Bound. Bot. pg. 221.1893
Yucca crassifila Engelm. in Trans. Acad. Sc. St. Louis, iii. (1873) 44 = Yucca baccata  or Yucca torreyi
Yucca macrocarpa (Torr.) Merriam, in N. Amer. Fauna 7:358 ( Name only) 1893; Cov., U.S. Natl. Herbarium
                                        Contrib. 4:202 1893 = Yucca torreyi or Yucca schidigera ?
Yucca torreyi forma parviflora McKelvey in Yuccas Southwest. U.S. 1:112, 1938

Type location:
Locality near Limpia Creek and near Presidio del Norte, Texas.

Distribution:
Extending from the Uvalde and Devil's River regions of  Texas across the southwestern part of texas and into mountainous portions of southeastern New Mexico as far west as the environs of the Rio Grande.

Short description of the species:
Plant arborescent with one or rarely few stems, 250 to 600 cm tall and up to 30 cm thick. Leaves 100 to 150 cm long, 2,8 to 5 cm, straight, plano-convex near the base and concavo-convex elsewhere, dark yellow green. Leaf margin thick, blunted, with many fibers. Inflorescence 100 to 130 cm tall, scape short (15 cm to 20,  7,5 cm thick at the base), panicle mainly below the leaves (25 to 50 % above), approximately 30 branchlets - basal 10 to 23 cm, central 25 to 30 cm, uppermost 12 to 15 cm in length. Flowers large, 6,5 to 8 (or even 10) cm long, campanulate, cream. Fruit variable in size and form,  10 to 14 cm long 3,2 to 5 cm thick, rarely constricted. Seeds 0,5 to 0,8 x 0,9 cm, thick, flat, rough, dull black, wingless.

Notes.
Yucca torreyi forma parviflora is treated as a synonym of Yucca torreyi since it's growing in the same range as this species, and since the only differences is that forma parviflora has smaller globose greenish cream flowers and fewer branchlets on the inflorescence, this cannot be treated as a forma, but fits within the normal variation for Yucca torreyi .

Hardiness:
Not known!

Pictures:
 
Yucca torreyi cultivated in Craig Howe's garden northern California.
Photo by Craig Howe ©2000
Yucca torreyi
Grown in Alexander Heim's garden in his Greece. Copyright 2008 Alexander Heim.
Yucca torreyi forma parviflora
Grown in Alexander Heim's garden in his Greece. Copyright 2008 Alexander Heim.

My own plants:
#703 Yucca torreyi, Texas, El Paso Co., sown 1995 seeds from Christa's Cactus #2328. Grown in pots that are outside during the summer, and stored inside the unheated greenhouse, unless there are extremely cold in such case it's moved into a frost free hobby room.

Reference:
ENGELMANN,  Acad.  Sci.  St.  Louis 3: 44 (1873)
MERRIAM, in N. Amer. Fauna 7:358 ( Name only) 1893
MERRIAM, Cov., U.S. Natl. Herbarium Contrib. 4:202 1893
MCKELVEY, Yuccas Southwest. U.S. 1:105-112, 1938
MCKELVEY, Yuccas Southwest. U.S. 1:112, 1938 (Yucca torreyi forma parviflora)
SHAFER, Britton & Shafer, N. Amer. Trees, pg. 157 fig. 117, 1908
TORREY, in Emory, U.S. and Mex. Bound. Bot. pg. 221.1893
WEBBER, Agric. Monograph U.S.D.A. 17:22-23 (1953)



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