Yucca thompsoniana closely resembles Yucca rostrata but grows further north, mostly in western Texas and usually on limestone hills and high elevation plains  between 900-1800m. They develop branches right after the first blooming so usually mature plants are branched. In area's where the topsoil is poor, branching may not occur often and tall singles develop. Under favourable circumstances old specimen can develop up to 10 arms. Y.thompsoniana remains smaller than Y.rostrata and the leaves are stiffer, shorter (25-40 cm) and greener than those of Y.rostrata, especially in nature. In cultivation the leaves turn more blue and their length increases to 60-80 cm. The leaf width varies from 7-16mm. In nature Y.thompsoniana leaves have small yellow lines with fine teeth along the margins, something wild Y.rostrata do not display.  In sharp contrast to Y.rostrata the surface of the leaves feels rather rough .The inflorescence differs from Y.rostrata: the panicle (40-60cm long) grows 50-90 cm above the leaves, making the total flower stalk up to 120-150cm, whereas Y.rostrata's flowers start right above the leaves. In the budding phase the flowers look purple or greenish, unlike the flowers of Y.rostrata. On the Edwards plateau, more specific in the area around Langtry, grows a miniature form of Y.thompsoniana. Plants of this variation form small groups of 2-3 trunks and do not grow taller than 50-70 cm including the head of 20-30 cm. Tropical Centre has some plants of this remarkable subspecies in the collection.

In the area around Study Bute, on lower elevations, Y.thompsoniana hybridises with Y.elata. This results in plants that look like Y.thompsoniana, with slightly bigger heads but with a huge taproot. It also appears to form hybrids with Y.rostrata. Since Y.thompsoniana prefers higher elevations than Y.rostrata this phenomena is rather rare.

In appearance Y.thompsoniana looks like Y.brevifolia, but is more cold hardy as it originates from colder/higher regions: it will tolerate temperatures down to -18° C but in dry conditions even  -23° C, not a good temperature for Y.rostrata either. Tropical Centre sells only Y.thompsoniana from West Texas and always has a very good stock of small single trunk plants up to multiple headed specimen size plants.  It is a popular ornamental plant in the USA and Europe. Beware: Certain nurseries and importers sell ‘greenish' Y.rostrata with 2 or 3 heads from north Mexico as Y.thompsoniana.

Yucca thompsoniana is a very good and impressive landscaper, but pretty rare in nurseries.

In our webshop we have Yucca thompsoniana 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.