Species
+

Yucca baccata Torr.

Banana Yucca, Datil Yucca, Phaamu, datil yucca

Climate known 53 photographs Cactus or succulent
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Yucca baccata is a common species of yucca native to the deserts of the Southwestern United States and three states in Northern Mexico.

Text from Wikipedia, “Yucca baccata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Yucca

Yucca is both the scientific name and common name for a genus native to North America from Panama to southern Canada. It contains 50 accepted species. In addition to yucca, they are also known as Adam's needle or Spanish-bayonet. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Yucca”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
Torr.
Native to
Colorado, Arizona, California +6
Wild records
1821 in range· 701 open

At a glance

Warmest month
32°C
Jul, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
344mm/yr
8 wet months · peak Aug 55 mm (CHELSA)
Light
19–53DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Yucca, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a winter growing season, December to March and July to September in the northern hemisphere (December to March and July to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 344 mm a year, wettest August at 55 mm, driest June at 10 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 53 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -7.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Sarcoyucca baccata (Torr.) Linding.; Yucca baccata f. genuina Engelm.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Yucca, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, December to March and July to September in the northern hemisphere (December to March and July to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (256 mm of 344 mm) falls in December to March and July to September, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 13.5 °C against a yearly mean of 14.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to March and June to September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 344 mm a year, wettest August at 55 mm, driest June at 10 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

344 mm a year at the habitat, 256 mm of it December to March and July to September. Wettest month August at 55 mm, driest June at 10 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 250 mm to 532 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 53 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 53 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 55).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -7.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -7.0 °C, the absolute minimum -20.8 °C, about 83 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -1.4 °C in January (across the envelope cells -7.6 °C to 2.5 °C), warmest day 32.1 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -7.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 36 to 50% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 10 °C in Dec to 32 °C in Jul; mean night from -1 °C in Jan to 19 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 344 mm of rain a year, most in Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 890 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -20.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost38.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)-20.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100mm rainDLI 19–53RH 36–50 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 890 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C10 / 4–1612 / 6–1816 / 10–2121 / 15–2526 / 21–3031 / 26–3532 / 27–3631 / 25–3528 / 23–3222 / 17–2615 / 10–2010 / 4–15
Night °C-1 / -8–3-0 / -6–43 / -3–66 / 1–1011 / 6–1516 / 11–2019 / 14–2319 / 13–2215 / 10–199 / 4–133 / -2–7-1 / -7–3
Rain mm29 / 17–5031 / 16–5429 / 14–4917 / 10–2912 / 6–2810 / 4–3246 / 19–8955 / 22–9537 / 16–5628 / 19–4221 / 15–3529 / 19–48
DLI22 / 19–2428 / 25–3037 / 35–4046 / 44–4851 / 49–5353 / 51–5548 / 45–5143 / 41–4639 / 37–4031 / 29–3323 / 21–2619 / 17–22
RH %50 / 47–5449 / 46–5346 / 42–5041 / 37–4639 / 35–4436 / 33–4345 / 37–5048 / 39–5346 / 39–5045 / 40–4947 / 43–5050 / 46–53

Each figure is the median across the 890 grid cells holding the 1764 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1110:1366 (34.475, -111.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -20.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -7.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 890 distinct grid cells holding the 1764 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1110:1366 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 34.50_-111.875, lapse-corrected +155 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1498 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeColorado, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker36.14, -115.393 · in the densest population, 1020 records (56% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1821 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 701 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 676 km away. 5 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 57 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1821 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Yucca baccataYucca baccataYucca baccataYucca baccataYucca baccataYucca baccataYucca baccataYucca baccata

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) CK2AZ, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Michelle W. (鍾偉瑋), some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Reid Hardin, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Andrew Dudley, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Yucca baccata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Carbon Isotope Ratios in Crassulacean Acid Metabolism Plants
Stan R. Szarek, John H. Troughton (1976) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
HOST SPECIFICITY AND THE GENETIC STRUCTURE OF TWO YUCCA MOTH SPECIES IN A YUCCA HYBRID ZONE
Jim Leebens‐Mack, Olle Pellmyr, Marcus T. Brock (1998) · Evolution
Emission of sunscreen salicylic esters from desert vegetation and their contribution to aerosol formation
Sou Matsunaga, Alex Guenther, Mark J. Potosnak, Eric C. Apel (2008) · Atmospheric chemistry and physics
A New Prodoxus from Yucca baccata: First Report of a Leaf-Mining Prodoxine (Lepidoptera: Prodoxidae)
David L. Wagner, Jerry A. Powell (1988) · Annals of the Entomological Society of America
Energy Dynamics of Vegetative and Reproductive Growth in Spanish Bayonet (Yucca baccata torr.)
Deborah R. Wallen, John A. Ludwig (1978) · The Southwestern Naturalist
The Preparation of Yucca Fibers: An Experimental Study
Carolyn M. Osborne (1965) · Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology
Antibacterial and Antioxidant Properties of Extracts of Yucca Baccata, a Plant of Northwestern Mexico, against Pathogenic Bacteria
Gloria Guadalupe Morales‐Figueroa, Gabriel Darío Pereo-Vega, Manuel Everardo Reyna-Murrieta, Rosalva Pérez-Morales (2022) · BioMed Research International
Effect of Yucca baccata butanolic extract on the shelf life of chicken and development of an antimicrobial packaging for beef
G.J. Gutiérrez-García, L.A. Quintana-Romero, Gloria Guadalupe Morales‐Figueroa, Julián Esparza‐Romero (2021) · Food Control
Wildfire and floral herbivory alter reproduction and pollinator mutualisms of Yuccas and Yucca moths
Andrew H. Lybbert, Samuel B. St. Clair (2016) · Journal of Plant Ecology
Marked Antigiardial Activity ofYucca baccataExtracts: A Potential Natural Alternative for Treating Protozoan Infections
Luis Quihui‐Cota, Rocio León-Trujillo, Humberto Astiazarán‐García, Julián Esparza‐Romero (2014) · BioMed Research International

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Yucca 51 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 43 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.