DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES : Yucca baccata | Banana Yucca 


GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
Banana yucca is distributed from southeastern California east to
southern Colorado and western Oklahoma and south to central Arizona,
New Mexico, southern Texas, and Chihuahua, Mexico [21,34,48].


ECOSYSTEMS : 
   FRES21  Ponderosa pine
   FRES28  Western hardwoods
   FRES29  Sagebrush
   FRES30  Desert shrub
   FRES32  Texas savanna
   FRES33  Southwestern shrubsteppe
   FRES34  Chaparral-mountain shrub
   FRES35  Pinyon-juniper
   FRES38  Plains grasslands
   FRES40  Desert grasslands


STATES : 
     AZ  CA  CO  NV  NM  OK  TX  UT  MEXICO


ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS : 
     BAND  BIBE  CADE  CANY  CACA  CHIR
     FOBO  GLCA  GRCA  GUMO  LAME  MEVE
     MOCA  NABR  PEFO  SAGU  WACA  ZION


BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
    3  Southern Pacific Border
    7  Lower Basin and Range
   11  Southern Rocky Mountains
   12  Colorado Plateau
   13  Rocky Mountain Piedmont


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K019  Arizona pine forest 
   K023  Juniper-pinyon woodland
   K027  Mesquite bosque
   K031  Oak-juniper woodlands
   K032  Transition between K031 and K037
   K033  Chaparral
   K037  Mountain-mahogany-oak scrub
   K038  Great Basin sagebrush
   K039  Blackbrush
   K041  Creosotebush
   K042  Creosotebush-bursage
   K043  Paloverde-cactus shrub
   K044  Creosotebush-tarbush
   K045  Ceniza shrub
   K053  Grama-galleta steppe
   K054  Grama-tobosa prairie
   K058  Grama-tobosa shrubsteppe
   K059  Trans-Pecos shrub savanna
   K060  Mesquite savanna
   K065  Grama-buffalograss


SAF COVER TYPES : 
    66  Ashe juniper-redberry (Pinchot) juniper
    68  Mesquite
   239  Pinyon-juniper
   237  Interior ponderosa pine
   241  Western live oak
   242  Mesquite


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
   211  Creosotebush scrub
   212  Blackbush
   401  Basin big sagebrush
   412  Juniper-pinyon woodland
   415  Curlleaf mountain-mahogany
   416  True mountain-mahogany
   417  Littleleaf mountain-mahogany
   502  Grama-galleta
   503  Arizona chaparral
   504  Juniper-pinyon pine woodland
   505  Grama-tobosa shrub
   506  Creosotebush-bursage
   507  Palo verde-cactus
   508  Creosotebush-tarbush
   509  Transition between oak-juniper woodland and mahogany-oak association
   703  Black grama-sideoats grama
   705  Blue grama-galleta
   706  Blue grama-sideoats grama
   707  Blue grama-sideoats grama-black grama
   713  Grama-muhly-threeawn
   718  Mesquite-grama
   727  Mesquite-buffalograss
   728  Mesquite-granjeno-acacia
   729  Mesquite
   735  Sideoats grama-sumac-juniper


HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Banana yucca is common in chaparral, Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia),
thornscrub, mountain shrub, pinyon-juniper (Pinus-Juniperus spp.),
deciduous and Madrean oak (Quercus spp.), and Madrean oak-pine
(Pinus-Quercus spp.) communities.  It fingers into ponderosa pine (P.
ponderosa) and mixed conifer forests [8,9,16,23,31,38,53].  Although it
is not a strong grassland invader, banana yucca also occurs in desert
and southern plains grasslands [9,21].  Publications describing plant
communities dominated by banana yucca are as follows:

Arizona chaparral: plant associations and ecology [12]
Vegetation of the Organ Mountains, New Mexico [16]

Common plant associates of banana yucca are given below by state and
plant community.

CA:  Associates in southern California chaparral include Tecate cypress
(Cypress forbesii), mission manzanita (Xyloccus bicolor), Eastwood
manzanita (Arctostaphylos glandulosa), chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum),
laurel sumac (Malosma laurina), birchleaf mountain-mahogany (Cercocarpos
betuloides), and Our Lord's candle (Y. whipplei) [3].

In the Mojave and Colorado deserts, common associates include Joshua
tree, creosotebush (Larrea tridentata), burroweed (Ambrosia dumosa),
ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens), and cacti (particularly Opuntia and
Echinocereus spp.).  Big galleta (Hilaria rigida), saltgrass (Distichlis
stricta), threeawns (Aristida spp.), and gramas (Bouteloua spp.) are
dominant grasses [42].

AZ:  Associates of banana yucca in big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata)
of northern Arizona include fourwing saltbush (Atriplex canescens),
green ephedra (Ephedra viridis), Apache plume (Fallugia paradoxa),
Whipple cholla (O. whipplei), desert trumpet (Eriogonum inflatum), blue
loco (Astragalus lentiginosus), blue grama (B. gracilis), galleta (H.
jamesii), and mutton grass (Poa fendleriana) [33].

Thornscrub associates include wait-a-minute (Mimosa biucifera), catclaw
acacia (Acacia greggii), crucifixion thorn (Canotia holacantha), jojoba
(Simmondsia chinensis), beargrass (Nolina microcarpa), false-mesquite
(Calliandra eriophylla), and Wright's buckwheat (E. wrightii) [38].

In Fort Bowie National Historic Site, banana yucca occurs in Emory oak
(Q. emoryi), shrub live oak (Q. turbinella), and desert ceanothus
(Ceanothus greggii) communities.  Wheeler sotol (Dasylirion wheeleri),
redberry juniper (J. erythrocarpa), sideoats grama (B. curtipendula), and
turpentinebush (Ericameria laricifolia) commonly occur with banana yucca
in all three communities [50].

NM:  Banana yucca associates in a creosotebush/low woollygrass
(Erioneuron pulchellum) community in New Mexico include honey mesquite
(Prosopis glandulosa), broom snakeweed (Gutierrezia sarothrae), tarbush
(Flourensia cernua), soaptree yucca (Y. elata), and bush muhly
(Muhlenbergia porteri) [5].

In southwestern New Mexico, banana yucca occurs in Emory oak-Mexican
pinyon (Pinus cembroides), gray oak (Q. grisea), and twoneedle
pinyon-alligator juniper (P. edulis-J. deppeana) communites [32,35].

UT:  Banana yucca associates in a blackbrush (Coleogne ramosissima)
community in southwestern Utah are red brome (Bromus rubens), cheatgrass
(B. tectorum), green ephedra, turpentine broom (Thamnosma montana),
desert almond (Prunus fasciculata), and Joshua tree [11].

TX:  In a creosotebush community in the Trans Pecos region of Texas,
associates include purple sage (Leucophyllum frutescens), lechuguilla
(Agave lechuguilla), Thompson's yucca (Y. thompsoniana), Texas
prickly-pear (O. lindheimeri), fishhook cactus (Mammillaria microcarpa),
Texas sotol (D. texanum), and bush muhly [10].

In plains grassland savanna, associates of banana yucca include curly
mesquite (H. belangeri), blue grama, hairy grama (B. hirsuta),
whitethorn acacia (Acacia constricta), catclaw acacia, wait-a-mintue,
and shrub live oak [54].

Related categories for SPECIES : Yucca baccata | Banana Yucca