Banana Yucca (Yucca baccata)

NPS Photo/Hallie Larsen

Banana Yucca (Yucca baccata) is a common species of yucca native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The species gets its common name "banana yucca" from its banana-shaped fruit. The specific epithet baccata means 'with berries'. Banana yucca is closely related to the Yucca schidigera, the Mojave yucca, with which it is interspersed where their ranges overlap; hybrids between them occur.