Yucca treculiana CarrièreCarrière, Rev. Hort. IV, 7: 580 1858. is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae, native to Texas, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas.Encyclopedia of Life map Common names include Trecul's Yucca, Spanish dagger, Spanish bayonet, and Don Quixote's lance.
Description
Yucca treculiana is a large species of Yucca with stem unbranched except near the top, and up to 10 or more feet tall occurring in brushy and open areas. The leaves are stiff with a sharp pointed apex and are up to 3 feet long by 3 inches wide, in large clumps at the ends of stems or branches, with dead leaves hanging below the live leaves. The flowers are white or faintly purplish, in dense showy clusters rising above the leaves, typically flowering in March and April. The fruit is a capsule up to 4 inches long by 1 inch wide. https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=yutr
Taxonomy Ayala-Hernandez et al. analyzed genetic data in 2025 and found Yucca treculiana and the often-confused Yucca torreyi to not only be distinct species, but of different lineages. Y. torreyi was found to be more closely related to Y. filifera, Y. potosina, Y. decipiens, and Y. queretaroensis than it is to Y. treculiana.
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