Scientific: Yucca pallida
Common: pale yucca, pale leaf yucca, twist leaf yucca
Family: Asparagaceae (subfamily Agavoideae)
Origin: Texas, endemic (native only) to North Central Texas and may extend into the Edwards Plateau, growing on rocky soil and outcrops of the Blackland Prairies and the Grand Prairie.
Pronounciation: YUK-ka pal-LI-da
Hardiness zones
Landscape Use: Accent, border, focal point, xeric landscape mass plantings,
container plant.
Form & Character: Basally-spreading, pale, spherical, reserved, peaceful,
less obtrusive than other yuccas, Spanish architecture.
Growth Habit: Evergreen, mostly herbaceous, monocot perennial subshrub, slow, acaulescent (stemless), and basal to 2-feet tall with equal spread (6 feet in height with flower stalks), some basal offsetting with age.
Foliage/Texture: Strap-like leaves are 2- to 3-feet long, finely serrated, strongly glaucous (gray blue), taper to a sharp but flexible tip; coarse texture.
Flowers & Fruits: Pale whitish-green flowers with 6 petals are born singly along a 6- to 8-feet flower stalk; fruit a capsule, rarely grow bulbils.
Seasonal Color: White flowers during April/May in Phoenix, June elsewhere.
Temperature: Tolerant of heat to 118oF, hardy to 0oF.
Light: Full sun to partial shade. Can be grown in shade but flowering will be inhibited.
Soil: Like other yuccas, pale yucca MUST have a well-drained soil to grow well.
Watering: Requires little supplemental water (mostly summer) and NO irrgations during winter.
Pruning: Remove the flower stalks after bloom.
Propagation: Seed, division of basal clump.
Disease and Pests: Spider mites, root and crown rot if over watered.
Additional comments: Pale yucca is a well-adapted, smaller yucca for xeric and oasis Phoenix landscapes. It can hybridize with Yucca rupicola resulting in offspring with gray-blue with twisted leaves that bears the marketed common name blue twist yucca.
Sunset 7-10, 12-24
USDA 7-11
