Banana Yucca

Banana yucca or Yucca baccata, the “banana name is for the banana shaped fruits” which are sweet and were dried by the Paiute Indians for winter food. It has large, stout straplike leaves which are twelve inches to forty inches long, one inch to two inches wide, and are sharply pointed. The plant has very short stems, which may occur singly or clumped together. Leaves are arranged spirally at the base of the stem. Individual white fibers along the leaf margins tend to curl. The flowering stalks may barely rise above the leaves. Bell-shaped flowers, which grow in thick clusters during the spring, are one and one half inches to three and one half inches long and are creamy white in color. Each flower has six perianth segments and three stigmas on a stout pistil. The fruits are large, four inches to nine inches long, and fleshy at maturity. The pods contain flat, blackish seeds.
It is native to California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and Mexico. It grows in pinyon-juniper, sagebrush, mountain brush and ponderosa pine communities from four thousand seven hundred and twenty five feet to six thousand six hundred and twenty feet in elevation.