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Anybody Know this plant please.


DAVEF

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Looks like  a Yucca or Spanish Bayonet Plant, info ......


#265 Yucca aloifolia

Common Names: Spanish bayonet, dagger plant

Family: Agavaceae (agave Family)


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This impressive clump of Spanish bayonet thrives in the hostile

environs of a dry dusty bait shop parking lot in Woodville, Florida.

Description

Spanish bayonet has an

erect trunk, 3-5 in (7.6-12.7 cm) in diameter, reaching up to 5-20 ft

(1.5-6.1 m) tall before it becomes top heavy and topples over. When

that happens, the tip turns upward and keeps on growing. The trunk is

armed with sharp pointed straplike leaves each about 2 in (0.6 ft)

long. The young leaves near the growing tip stand erect; older ones are

reflexed downward, and the oldest wither and turn brown, hanging around

the lower trunk like an Hawaiian skirt. Eventually the tip of the trunk

develops a 2 ft (0.6 m) long spike of white, purplish-tinged flowers,

each blossom about 4 in (12.7 cm) across. After flowering, the trunk

stops growing, but one or more lateral buds are soon formed, and the

uppermost becomes a new terminal shoot. Any other buds become branches,

but these are usually few, and the plant has an open, airy habit.

Spanish bayonet also produces new buds, or offshoots, near the base of

the trunk, forming a thicket. There are several cultivars available,

including 'Marginata' with yellow margined leaves and a variety (var. draconis) with a branching trunk and wider, recurved leaves.

Spanish bayonet is similar to Spanish dagger or mound lily (Y. gloriosa)

but the latter can be recognized by its more branched, interlaced habit

which creates an overall moundlike appearance, and by its leaves which

are: bluish-green instead of dark green; less rigid, tending to bend

downward at the middle; wider and longer; and with smooth instead or

rough margins.

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  • 3 weeks later...
I have the normal green leaved variety back in the UK and it is a mass of flowers at the moment[:)] It started flowering in it's 2nd year, but it has outgrown it's space now and I'm not looking forward to tackling it! It fights back[:(]

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  • 1 month later...

The photo is def a Yucca. The purple one someone has is most likely Cordyline australis, the Dracaena Palm. The ordinary green one becomes a nice tree in time, but the purple one is more tender and tends to stay small, pruned by frost.

There are loads of species of Yucca, by the way, including varieties with attractive golden variegated leaves. Some, but not all species, have very vicious tips to the leaves, which were used by natice americans to sow: Pull them off just right and you get a needle and thread.

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