Sonoran Desert Agaves & Yuccas

Robust succulents with long, often thickened leaves. Leaf tips often sharp-pointed. Flower perianth usually with six, similar petal-like segments.

Desert Agave	Agave deserti	Banana Yucca	Yucca baccata
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
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Sotol	Dasylirion wheeleri	Soap Tree Yucca	Yucca elata
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

Mojave Yucca	Yucca schidigera	Joshua Tree	Yucca brevifolia
Robust yucca with stiff leaves and large panicles many white flowers in mid spring. Northwestern Sonoran Desert. . 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
Golden-flowered Century Plant	Agave chrysantha	Parry's Beargrass	Nolina parryi
Long, tapering leaves in dense rosette at ground level. Tall stalk with thousands of bright golden-yellow flowers. Upper Sonoran and open Juniper-Oak Woodlands and chaparral. Detailed Description		Numerous flexible, strap-like leaves in dense rosettes. Leaf margines with short teeth. Tall flower stalks with many thousands of small greenish white flowers. Detailed Description
Toumey's Shin Dagger	Agave toumeyana	Bear Grass	Nolina microcarpa
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		Long, slender, grass-like leaves are much tougher in texture than any Arizona grass. Large, many-branched panicles of small flowers. Detailed Description