Yucca rigida


Yucca rigida Engelmann ex Trelease, in Mo. Bot. Gard. Ann. Rpt. 13: 65, 1902.

Common name: Blue Yucca, Denticulate-leaf Yucca


Yucca rigida.
Photo by Paul Rose, Birmingham, England, Copyright 2003-2005

Synonyms:
Yucca rupicola var. rigida Engelmann Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis, 3: 49. (1873). (only in part as the plants from Buffatello is Yucca thompsoniana)

Subspecies, varieties and forma:
Non to my knowledge

Type location:
Mexico.

Distribution:
Mexico, (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango) on rocky and stony slopes among shrubs in the desert at 1200 to 1500 altitude.

Short description of the species:
Plants arborescent with 1 to 3 stems up to 450 cm tall and 12 to 15 cm thick, none or few branches, rosettes with many leaves. Leaves, linear slightly wider at the middle and canaliculate, bluish to yellowish green, 40 - 60 cm long, from 1,2 up to 1,7 cm wide. Inflorescence pubescent, 130 to 170 cm tall. Scape held high above the leaves 30 to 70 cm long. ellipsoid to ovoid in shape. Branchlets  25 to 40 Flowers globose (round) to campanulate (bell shaped), 3 to 6 cm long, white. Fruit 3,5 to 7 cm long, 1,8 to 2,5 cm thick. Seeds black, dull, 0,4 x 0,7, thinner than 1 mm thick, with at small wing.

Hardiness:
I don't know how hardy this plant will be in Denmark, but it may probably be  hardy in an unheated greenhouse, if planted in a well drained bed. As a fellow grower of exotic plants: Paul Rose, Birmingham, England has a Yucca rigida that is grown outsides with no protection at all in an open position in full sun, here it has taken -7C with no problems whatsoever over several years. Paul Rose's Yucca rigida is planted in a mix of 50% grit  50% clay soil. You should visit Paul Rose's web site for more photos of his fantastic exotic garden.

Related species:
Yucca rigida is very closely related to Yucca reverchoni, Yucca rupicola, Yucca pallida, Yucca rostrata and Yucca thompsoniana

Notes:
Yucca rigida is not only very related to Yucca thompsoniana  If you go to the location for the type specimen for Yucca thompsoniana (Bufatello, near Presidio del Norte, Rio Grande, Chihuahua, Mexico.) and what you will se there is plants of what we today call Yucca rigida. Since Yucca rigida was published first, then it does have priority as a species rank, and the plant we call Yucca thompsoniana is actually a unnamed species! Hopefully will Hochstätter have solved this error in his next book the Yuccas of Mexico, which will be published in 2004, or before in one of his many articles in the Dutch Journal Succulenta.

Pictures:
 
Yucca rigida.
Photo by Paul Rose, Birmingham, England, Copyright 2003.
Yucca rigida
In the garden of Steve Gange, Essex, UK.
Copyright 2003 Steve Gange.
Yucca rigida
Grown in Alexander Heim's garden in his Greece. Copyright 2007 Alexander Heim.

I do unfortunately not have any pictures of this species i bloom or from habitat, if you have a photo that I may use please let me know

Reference:
Engelmann Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis, 3: 49. (1873). (only in part as the plants from Buffatello is Yucca thompsoniana) (Yucca rupicola var. rigida)
Matuda & Pinã Lujan (1980) Cact. & Journ. Amer. 52 (6) pg. 277-281
TRELEASE, in Mo. Bot. Gard. Ann. Rpt. 13: 65, 1902.
TRELEASE, Mo. Bot. Gard. Ann. Rpt. 22:101, 1911(Yucca thompsoniana)



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