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Soaptree yucca

Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz / Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0

Soaptree yucca

Yucca elata

A tree-like yucca of the desert grasslands, mesas and desert hillsides of west Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and northern Mexico, also called palmilla, Spanish for "small palm". Young plants look like a coarse bunchgrass of very narrow, white-edged leaves; with age they build one or several trunks, thatched with dead leaves and each topped by a round head of fine leaves, 3.9 to 14.8 feet tall by the Flora of North America's figures. From late spring into early summer a flowering stalk 3 to 7 feet long rises above the leaves, with 25 to 30 side branches of creamy-white bells. It grows very slowly, about 1 inch a year by the Wildflower Center's estimate, and wants full sun, coarse, fast-draining soil and almost no water. Two things to weigh first: the leaves are sharply pointed, so it belongs away from paths, and a dug-up plant rarely survives a move, so start with a small container plant. Seed depends on the yucca moth, its only pollinator. The name comes from the soapy substance in its roots and trunk, once used as soap, and the ASPCA lists yuccas as toxic to dogs, cats and horses.

Native: 5 US states

Climate fit: moderate (59/100)

Focal point

Structure

Pollinator

Light

Full sun

Water

Low water

Mature size

3.9-14.8 ft tall · 19.7" apart

Hardy in zones

5b-11b

very cold to nearly frost-free winters

Life cycle

Perennial

Bloom period

Spring

Native in Illinois

No

Related products

Cold hardiness

These values are location-based: this location's current hardiness is the baseline, and the 2050 value is a projected future climate for this same location.

Now

Zone 6b

Plotwright

USDA Zone 6b

-5°F to 0°F

Well-suited

2050

2100

Zone 7a

Plotwright

0°F to 5°F

Well-suited

In plain terms: This location has cold winters. Its winters are projected to keep warming through 2050.

✓

Well-suited today and still thriving in 2050.

Heat tolerance

Heat tolerance values are location-based too: heat days today are observed at this site, and the 2050 value projects this same location under a future climate.

Loading AHS heat-zone data for this location...

Where this plant fits

Suitable across 37 ecoregions - 29 climate-resilient through 2070 · 8 newly possible by 2070. Best matches first.

Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests

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Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests

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Arizona Mountains forests

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Atlantic coastal pine barrens

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Blue Mountains forests

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California coastal sage and chaparral

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Central Pacific Northwest coastal forests

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Central-Southern Cascades Forests

What it needs

Conditions

Light

Full sun

Water

Low water

Soil pH

Neutral / Alkaline

Acid is below pH 6.0, neutral 6.0 to 8.0, alkaline above 8.0.

Spacing

19.7"

Habit

Evergreen, very slow-growing, tree-like yucca that starts as a grassy tuft of narrow leaves and with age forms one or several trunks, thatched with dead leaves and each topped by a round head of fine leaves; it sprouts slowly into clumps from a deep vertical rhizome

Care tips

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Give it full sun and coarse, fast-draining soil, then let it be dry: USDA PLANTS rates it intolerant of waterlogged ground and not adapted to fine-textured soils.

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Start from a small container plant rather than digging up a big one: FEIS reports that only about a quarter of transplanted plants survived, because digging broke the taproot.

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Site it well away from paths and play areas: the leaves are sharply pointed (FEIS) and each ends in a short spine (Flora of North America).

Lifecycle

Planting

Plant it in full sun in coarse, fast-draining soil. The Wildflower Center lists sun, dry soil and low water use on gypseous, sandy, sandy-loam and medium-loam soils, and USDA PLANTS rates it adapted to coarse and medium soils but not to fine ones, with no tolerance of waterlogged ground, high tolerance of lime and medium tolerance of salt. FEIS says it prefers coarse soils, from gypsum dunes and quartz sandhills to eroded rocky slopes. Set it well back from paths: FEIS describes the leaves as sharply pointed, and the Flora of North America says each ends in a short spine.

Transplanting

Move it young, or not at all. FEIS reports that only about a quarter of transplanted plants survived, because digging broke the taproot, and says a move succeeds only when the entire root comes out with as little damage as possible and the plant is watered as soon as it is replanted. Its vertical rhizome commonly reaches 3.3 to 4.9 feet deep (FEIS). USDA PLANTS lists seed, container stock and bare-root stock as ways it is propagated, and the Wildflower Center lists it as commercially available, so start from a small plant.

Early growth

Water only to settle it in, then leave it dry. USDA PLANTS gives it high drought tolerance, low water use and a native rainfall of 10 to 15 inches a year, and FEIS describes typical sites in New Mexico with about 8 inches a year, most of it from May to September. Plants For A Future says established plants develop a very deep, branching root system. Growth is very slow, about 1 inch a year by the Wildflower Center estimate.

Maturity

The Flora of North America gives 3.9 to 14.8 feet tall, the Wildflower Center 5 to 20 feet, and FEIS stems often 9.8 to 13.1 feet and occasionally 30 feet; the record follows the Flora of North America. Plants For A Future gives only 6.6 feet. The flower stalk carries 25 to 30 side branches of creamy-white bells (Wildflower Center), and the seed capsules ripen from August to October (FEIS). Wikipedia notes that plants do not flower every year. FEIS says each leaf stays green for three to five years and then hangs dry on the stem.

Propagation

The Wildflower Center says yuccas germinate promptly from fresh seed held over winter, best at 60 to 70°F, and can also be grown from rhizomes, stem cuttings or offsets dug from the side of established plants. Gather the capsules as they begin to dry but before they split, dry and crush them, and keep the seed over winter in moist sand in the refrigerator. Plants For A Future sows at 68°F, when seed germinates in 1 to 12 months, and also takes root cuttings in late winter or early spring and divides suckers in late spring. USDA PLANTS, unlike the Wildflower Center, does not list cuttings. In the wild, FEIS says, most new plants are sprouts from the rhizome and root crown.

Native range

Native

Naturalized

Native across 3 US states; naturalized in 2 US states.

Native ecoregions

Naturally belongs in 11 ecoregions - its native range crosses a state or province each one spans (not necessarily this exact habitat).

Arizona Mountains forests

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Chihuahuan desert

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Colorado Rockies forests

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Cross-Timbers savanna-woodland

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Edwards Plateau savanna

Sierra Nevada forests

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Sonoran desert

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Southeast US conifer savannas

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Climate notes

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Only one source checked here gives a zone range, and its own text disagrees with it, so the record reads each edge separately. Plants For A Future's zone cell gives 9 to 11, but its own text reports one source finding it hardy to about -22°F, and USDA PLANTS gives a minimum temperature of -13°F, which falls in zone 5b. The record takes 5b, the middle of those three cold readings, as its cold edge, and Plants For A Future's 11 as its warm edge. The Wildflower Center lists it as cold tolerant and Wikipedia calls it very cold-hardy but in need of much sun. NC State Extension has no page for it, and the Missouri Botanical Garden could not be checked.

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The native range here is taken from Kew's World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), the dataset POWO publishes: Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, and northeastern and northwestern Mexico. WCVP records no introduced range. The Flora of North America places the typical variety on desert hillsides and grasslands at 1,312 to 6,234 feet in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas and in Chihuahua, Coahuila and Sonora, and the Wildflower Center gives southwestern Texas to central and southern Arizona and adjacent Mexico.

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The state list here follows the Wildflower Center and also includes Nevada and Utah, where FEIS and the Wildflower Center count the smaller Utah yucca, with stems to about 4.3 feet (FEIS), as part of this species; Wikipedia also gives southern Nevada and southwestern Utah. WCVP does not list either state for soaptree yucca, and the Flora of North America treats Utah yucca as a separate species, Yucca utahensis, of Arizona, Nevada and Utah.

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It is a plant of dry, semidesert grassland. USDA PLANTS gives it at least 150 frost-free days and 10 to 15 inches of rain a year, and FEIS describes it as most common on coarse soils, from gypsum dunes and sandhills to rocky slopes, where it helps hold the sand.

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Sources differ on bloom time: the Wildflower Center gives April to June, FEIS mid-May to mid-July, the Flora of North America spring to early summer, USDA PLANTS late spring and Plants For A Future July to August. Both sources whose bloom period is checked here, USDA PLANTS and Plants For A Future, include spring, so the record gives spring; only Plants For A Future adds summer.

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On soil pH, USDA PLANTS gives 7.0 to 8.5, neutral to alkaline, and rates its lime tolerance high, while Plants For A Future gives mildly acid to mildly alkaline. The record gives neutral to alkaline, the range both state.

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A hardy, evergreen Great Plains yucca that holds a low rosette of narrow, pale blue-green dagger-like leaves and sends up a 4 1/2-foot stalk of pendulous, greenish-white bell flowers in early summer. Extremely drought- and poor-soil tolerant, it depends on an obligate mutualism with the yucca (Pronuba) moth - the only insect that pollinates it - so seed is not produced every year. The root has long been used to make soap, giving the plant its common name.

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Educator packet

Plant packet

Soaptree yucca educator packet

A tree-like yucca of the desert grasslands, mesas and desert hillsides of west Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and northern Mexico, also called palmilla, Spanish for "small palm". Young plants look like a coarse bunchgrass of very narrow, white-edged leaves; with age they build one or several trunks, thatched with dead leaves and each topped by a round head of fine leaves, 3.9 to 14.8 feet tall by the Flora of North America's figures. From late spring into early summer a flowering stalk 3 to 7 feet long rises above the leaves, with 25 to 30 side branches of creamy-white bells. It grows very slowly, about 1 inch a year by the Wildflower Center's estimate, and wants full sun, coarse, fast-draining soil and almost no water. Two things to weigh first: the leaves are sharply pointed, so it belongs away from paths, and a dug-up plant rarely survives a move, so start with a small container plant. Seed depends on the yucca moth, its only pollinator. The name comes from the soapy substance in its roots and trunk, once used as soap, and the ASPCA lists yuccas as toxic to dogs, cats and horses.

Scientific name

Yucca elata

Plant type

shrub

Hardiness

5b-11b

Light

full-sun

Moisture

low

Spacing

19.7"