Chandigarh Forests
Department of Forest & Wildlife
UT Administration
Chandigarh
Department of Forest & Wildlife
|
Division
|
Angiosperms |
|
Class
|
Monocotyledons |
|
Subclass |
Petaloideae |
|
Order |
Agavales |
|
Family
|
Agavaceae |
|
Genus
|
Yucca |
|
Species
|
aloifolia |
|
Etymology:
|
The name of plant in Peru. |
|
Botanical name:
|
Yucca aloifolia Linn. |
|
Local/Trade Names: |
Spanish Bayonet. |
|
Conservation status:
|
Commonly grown in gardens. |
|
Digonestic features:
|
Leaves rigid, long. |
|
Description: |
A shrub. Stem erect, thick, cylindrical, completely covered with leaves when young. Leaves long, rigid, conspicuously narrowed above, slightly concave on the upper surface, smooth, dark green, ending in a stiff shrap spine. Flowers in long panicles, white with purple marked at the apex. Fruit ellipsoidal, hexagonal. |
|
Phenology: |
Fls. May – June. |
|
Distribution:
|
Native of South America. |
|
Where to see it: |
Nursery |
|
Uses: |
Saponaceous rhizomes employed as a substitute for soap. Flowers fried and eaten. Fleshy fruits edible, but may cause purging. Leaves yield a strong tenacious fibre, used for ropes. Flowers contain aloifoline, active against Lewis lung-tumour as well as other transplanted mouse neoplasm. |
