Plant of the Week
Spanish Dagger
Latin: Yucca gloriosa
Plant lovers come in all shapes, sizes and sexes, but as any
nurseryman will tell you, the fairer sex makes up the vast majority of their
customer base. While most gardeners are women, their rise into the ranks of
professional horticulturists and botanists has occurred mostly since the
environmental movement of the 1970's. One interesting exception to this was
the heiress turned botanist, Susan Delano McKelvey (1883-1964), who spent
over a decade studying yuccas, of all things.
About 40 species of yuccas have been described, all of them
originating in North America. Yuccas belong to the agave family and are
mostly found in the desert southwest from California to Texas. Yucca
gloriosa, variously called Palm Lily or Spanish Dagger, is unique
because it is an eastern American species and its blooms appear in the fall
unlike most species that are spring flowering.
Spanish Dagger Yucca forms short trunks that may reach three
feet in length with rosettes of sword-shaped, 24-inch long leaves stacked in
whorls up the stems. The leaves are, as with all yuccas, sharp-pointed.
Hundreds of creamy-white flowers are borne on a terminal
panicle of blooms that may reach six feet or more in height. The flowers
have six petals and are to three inches across and look much like the more
common Adam’s needle yucca. The fruit, if they appear, are a three-segmented
capsule to three inches long with a distinct restriction about a third of
the way down.
McKelvey, of a wealthy Philadelphia family and cousin to
future president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, fled a failing marriage in 1919
and moved to Boston where she immersed herself in the study of botany. With
the encouragement of Charles Sargent, the longtime director of the Arnold
Arboretum, she learned the art of plant collecting in the newly formed
Glacier National Park in Montana in the summer of 1921.
McKelvey collected in a grander style than botanists that
preceded her. The results of her decade long study of yuccas was the
publication of her treaties, Yuccas of the Southwestern United States,
which appeared in 1938. But McKelvey is best remembered for her third book,
Botanical Explorations of the Trans-Mississippi West 1790-1850, which
was published in 1956.
Yuccas are easy to grow in the garden, but they are usually
more effective if used in a grouping in the landscape. The drooping
characteristic of the older leaves makes the sharp pointed tips of this
species less likely to injure than other species. They should have full sun
to do their best and the soil should be well drained, especially during the
winter months.
When I started my horticultural training in the mid-60's,
women made up about 15% of my classes. The environmental movement that hit
American culture in the 1970's saw women’s enrollment in horticulture
increase to about 45% of the student body. Arkansas’ own Janet Carson was in
this first wave of women students into the professional ranks. The
percentage of female students in horticulture has remained more or less
constant for the past two decades.
By: Gerald Klingaman, retired
Extension Horticulturist
- Ornamentals
Extension News -
September 27, 2002
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