Yucca rupicola or twisted-leaf yucca is a small stemless species, 25-75cm tall and endemic to the Edwards Plateau west of Austin in central Texas. It favours both rocky limestone hillsides and grassy flats in sun or partial shade. Its narrow, olive-green leaves of 20-60cm long twist as they age, they are 1.5-4.5cm wide with leaf margins that can be yellow or orange-red, with minute sharp teeth. It is a really interesting plant to use in the garden for its unusual flowering structure: its inflorescence is 0.5-1.5m long, sometimes up to 2m, which is huge for such a small plant, with big bell-shaped white to green-white flowers. Y.rupicola has a cold tolerance in wet climates of -15 °C, in drier climates a few degrees more, -18°C.

Like all yucca's they like sun and a well drained soil, in wet climates it is better to remove the panicle after a few weeks, as the flowers fall down in the crown and start rotting. The yucca is most vulnerable after flowering as the stalk leaves a hole through which rain water enters the hart which could lead to rot. When the old flower stalk has rotted away, it is better to seal the hole with cement; the new growing spears will push it aside.

In our webshop we have this yucca for sale.

Authors drs C.N. Klijn and R.H. Smeets from Tropical Centre have studied yuccas in the wild and also then thousands of import yucca plants from everywhere in Mexico and the USA. Learn more about yuccas and our yucca background through the website buttons about us, photo-albums and newsletters. If you mention us, as the source you may use our descriptions and pictures.