Sonoran Desert Agaves & Yuccas

Desert Agave

Agave deserti

Banana Yucca

Yucca baccata

This image is hosted at Wikipedia. Sturdy leaves in a basal rosette. Leaf edges with stiff spines. Flowering stalk pushing up rapidly to several meters tall. Plant dies after flowering but usu. succeeded by vegetative pups. Fairly common upper elevations of Sonoran Desert. Detailed Description

This image is hosted at Wikipedia. Few branched usu. 2-3 meters tall with stiff. bayonette leaves. Large white flowers born on meter-tall stalks. Leaf edges with loose fibers. Fairly common upper elevations of Sonoran Desert. Detailed Description

Sotol

Dasylirion wheeleri

Soap Tree Yucca

Yucca elata

Photo hosted at Wikimedia Project. Usu. unbranched trunks to 1 meter +. Leaves, long, strap-like with sharp prickles along margins. Tall flowering stalk each year with numerous small flowers. Also known as Desert Spoon. Detailed Description

Tall yucca with narrower, more numerous leaves than Banana Yucca and with copious fibers shredding from leaf margins. Fairly common at at upper elevations of Sonoran Desert. Detailed Description

Toumey's Shin Dagger

Agave toumeyana

Joshua Tree

Yucca brevifolia

Low growing agave with sharp dagger-like leaves about shin-height. Flowering stalks very tall in relation to plant size. Encountered mostly at upper Sonoran Desert elevation in transition to grassland or chaparral. Detailed Description

Distinctive tree form. Growing several meters tall with dagger leaves clustered at branch tips. Branches cloaked in old, dead leaves. Large white flowers on fairly tall stalks. Found only in northwestern portions of Sonoran Desert where it merges with the Mojave Desert. Detailed Description