Species › Plants › Datil Yucca

Datil Yucca

Yucca baccata

CommonPlant
Illustration of Datil Yucca (Yucca baccata)
Safety note: Leaf tips are sharply pointed and can cause puncture wounds.

Datil Yucca is a robust yucca of the Chihuahuan and Sonoran deserts and Great Basin, producing large, fleshy seed pods that were an important food for desert indigenous peoples. Like all yuccas, it has a mutualistic relationship with yucca moths, which are the exclusive pollinators. The pods can be eaten raw or roasted.

Habitat
Desert slopes and grasslands of the Chihuahuan Desert and Great Basin
Diet
Exclusive pollination by yucca moths; pods eaten by deer, bears, and coyotes
How common
Common

Best time to see a Datil Yucca

The best time to see a Datil Yucca is January–June, when about 63% of U.S. sightings happen, based on 11,764 research-grade iNaturalist observations.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D

Not certain it is a Datil Yucca? What plant is this? walks through what to check first and the lookalikes that catch people out.

Recent Datil Yucca sightings near you

Live, research-grade observations from iNaturalist. Allow location to center the map on you.

Spotted a Datil Yucca?

Point Huck at any plant, bird, or animal and know for sure - plus a live map of where it is being spotted near you.

Get Huck - free
5,300+species
63national parks
50states

More plants

Dawn Redwood
Dawn Redwood
Metasequoia glyptostroboides
Deer Fern
Deer Fern
Blechnum spicant
Deergrass
Deergrass
Muhlenbergia rigens
Dense Blazing Star
Dense Blazing Star
Liatris spicata
Desert Agave
Desert Agave
Agave deserti
Desert Beardtongue
Desert Beardtongue
Penstemon pseudospectabilis
Desert Bluebells
Desert Bluebells
Phacelia campanularia
Desert Five-spot
Desert Five-spot
Eremalche rotundifolia