General: Spanish Bayonet Yucca (Yucca harrimaniae) is an uncommon species of Yucca in the southeastern Great Basin Desert in the Sagebrush Scrub and Pinyon-Juniper Woodland zones. Spanish Bayonet occur mostly in Utah and northern Arizona, but they also occur in eastern Nevada and eastern New Mexico. Look for this species in Basin and Range National Monument and Cathedral Gorge State Park. This species is found on sandy soils and soils derived from limestone.

Family: Agave (Agavaceae).

Other names:

Plant Form: Solitary clump of long upright leaves with a central flowering stalk; rarely a short trunk. Occurs in loose colonies. In this species, the leaves are relatively short, the flowering stalk is relatively short, and the flowers hold tight along the stalk.

Height: Main plant to about 2 ft, flowering stalk adds about 3 ft.

Trunk: To about 12 in, usually absent.

Leaves: Daggers to 20-in long with a sharp tip; pale-green to blue-green color, fibrous margins. Leaves widest at the middle and concave above.

Flowers: Blooms in the spring. Inflorescence is an erect raceme to 3-ft high. Flowers large, white with purple tinge; often begin down in the leaves and do not spread far from the stalk.

Fruit: woody capsule, cylindrical, constricted in the middle, splitting on the long axis into three parts.

Seeds:

Habitat: Sandy areas where the sand is derived from sandstone

Elevation: 4,000 to 8,200 ft.

Comments: This is our smallest species of Yucca.