Chandigarh Forests

Department of Forest & Wildlife
UT Administration
Chandigarh

YUCCA ALOIFOLIA Linn.

Division

Angiosperms

Class

Monocotyledons

Subclass

Petaloideae

Order

Agavales

Family

Agavaceae

Genus

Yucca

Species

aloifolia

Etymology:

 

The name of plant in Peru.

Botanical name:

 

Yucca aloifolia Linn.

Local/Trade Names:

Spanish Bayonet.

Conservation status:

 

Commonly grown in gardens.

Digonestic features:

 

Leaves rigid, long.

Description:

A shrub. Stem erect, thick, cylindrical, completely covered with leaves when young. Leaves long, rigid, conspicuously narrowed above, slightly concave on the upper surface, smooth, dark green, ending in a stiff shrap spine. Flowers in long panicles, white with purple marked at the apex. Fruit ellipsoidal, hexagonal.

Phenology:

Fls. May – June.

Distribution:

 

Native of South America.

Where to see it:

Nursery

Uses:

Saponaceous rhizomes employed as a substitute for soap. Flowers fried and eaten. Fleshy fruits edible, but may cause purging. Leaves yield a strong tenacious fibre, used for ropes. Flowers contain aloifoline, active against Lewis lung-tumour as well as other transplanted mouse neoplasm.

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