The banana yuccaYucca baccata is a common type of yucca in the Mojave Desert of the southwestern United States. It gets its name from the shape of its fruits, which are banana_shaped.
Banana yuccas are closely related to the Mojave yuccas (Y. schidigera), with whom they are interspersed in their range, and will hybridize with them. baccata is recognized by having leaves with more of a blue_green color, and by having short or nonexistent trunks. It flowers in the spring, typically from April on, and the flowers range from white to cream in color, with purple shades. The flower stalk is not especially tall, typically 1_1.5 meters.
The Paiutes dried the fruits for use during the winter.
The yuccas comprise the genus Yucca of 40-50 species of perennials, shrubs, and trees in the agave family Agavaceae, notable for their rosettes of tough, sword-shaped leaves and large clusters of white or whitish flowers.
Yuccas have a very specialized pollination system, being pollinated by the Yucca moth; the insect purposefully transfers the pollen from the stamens of one plant to the stigma of another, and at the same time lays an egg in the flower; the moth larva then eats some of the developing seeds, but far from all.
Many yuccas also bear edible parts, including fruits, seeds, flowers, flowering stems, and more rarely roots, but use of these is sufficiently limited that references to yucca as food more often than not stem from confusion with the similarly spelled but botanically unrelated yuca.
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