Yucca baccata (datil yucca or banana yucca, also known as Spanish bayonet and broadleaf yucca) is a common species of yucca native to the deserts of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, from southeastern California north to Utah, east to western Texas and south to Sonora and Chihuahua. It is also reported in the wild in Colombia. 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. Description Yucca baccata is recognized by having leaves long with a blue-green color, and short or nonexistent trunks. It flowers in the spring, starting in April to July depending on locality (altitude), and the flowers range from long, in six segments, white to cream-coloured with purple shades. The flower stalk is not especially tall, typically . The seeds are rough, black, wingless, long and wide, thick; they ripen in 6–8 weeks. The indehiscent fleshy fruit is long and across, cylindrical, and tastes similar to sweet potato. Subspecies Yucca baccata has been divided into three subspecies: Yucca baccata subsp. baccata—Datil Yucca, Banana Yucca Yucca baccata subsp. thornberi (McKelvey) Hochstätter—Thornber's Yucca Yucca baccata subsp. vespertina (McKelvey) Hochstätter—Mohave Datil Yucca Distribution and habitat The plant is known from the Great Basin, the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan Deserts, plus the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains ecoregion and lower, southern parts of the Rocky Mountains. It occurs primarily in the US states of Utah, California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas, and the Mexican state of Chihuahua. It can be found in several habitat types including Pinyon-Juniper, desert grassland, Creosote bush scrub, sagebrush, and ponderosa pine colonies at elevations generally between . It is associated with Yucca schidigera, Yucca brevifolia, Yucca arizonica, Yucca faxoniana, Agave utahensis, and other Agave species. It can be found among Sclerocactus, Pediocactus, Navajoa, and Toumeya species. The plant occurs in a large area of the North American deserts and exhibits much variation across its range. Yucca baccata specimens from the higher, mountainous regions of the Rocky Mountains is winterhardy and tolerates extreme conditions. Ecology It is a larval host to the ursine giant skipper, yucca giant skipper, and various yucca moths (Proxodus sp.). After feeding, the skippers pupate in the yucca's roots. Uses The young flower stalks can be