VALUE AND USE
SPECIES : Yucca baccata | Banana Yucca 


WOOD PRODUCTS VALUE : 
NO-ENTRY


IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE : 
Wild and domestic ungulates and rodents browse banana yucca [2,45].  The
leaves are a preferred winter food of elk in Bandelier National
Monument, New Mexico [2].  In southern New Mexico, white-throated and
southern plains woodrats were the most important herbivores of banana
yucca leaves [49].  The flowers and fruits are highly palatable to
ungulates, rodents, and lagomorphs [14,47,49].


PALATABILITY : 
NO-ENTRY


NUTRITIONAL VALUE : 
Flowers of banana yucca collected in Arizona chaparral contained 11
percent protein [47].


COVER VALUE : 
In Utah, cover value of banana yucca was rated "good" for upland game
birds and "fair" for small nongame birds and small mammals [17].


VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES : 
Banana yucca is easily established on disturbed sites [20,51] and can be
planted in heavy-use areas.  Cole [13] listed banana yucca as one of the
species that resisted trampling on backcountry campsites in Grand Canyon
National Park, Arizona.

Cultivation:  Banana yucca readily produces roots and is easily started
from stem cuttings.  In the field, it is often possible to collect stem
portions that already support aerial roots.  Detached rhizomes
apparently do not root as readily as detached aboveground stems.  Banana
yucca can also be propagated by cutting basal sprouts from the main
stem, preferably including a few roots in the cutting [51].

Both young and mature banana yucca transplant well [20,51].  Webber [51]
reported only 1 percent mortality of 2- and 3-year-old transplanted
seedlings.  Rhizomatous plants gained less topgrowth than nonrhizomatous
plants after transplanting.

Mature, bare-rooted banana yucca can be transplanted and maintained in
the nursery for at least 2 years before outplanting.  Salvaged, mature
banana yucca showed good survivorship after removal from a gold mine
site in the Mojave Desert of southeastern California.  After 2 years in
the nursery, mortality of transplants was 14 percent.  Seventy-one
percent of surviving plants were in "excellent" condition; 15 percent
were in "poor" condition (n=226 plants) [20].


OTHER USES AND VALUES : 
Banana yucca is planted as an ornamental [23].  The fruits and seeds of
banana yucca are edible [34,39,48,52].

Banana yucca was greatly utilized by Native Americans.  In areas where
banana yucca was plentiful, the fruits and seeds were a dietary staple
[34,48,52].  Fermented drinks such as tequila were made from the sap.
The sap was also used as a color-fixing agent for pottery paint [39].
The roots of banana yucca lather and were used for soap.  The leaves are
fibrous and were used for making baskets, sandals, and rope
[6,7,34,39,52].


MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
Banana yucca is becoming rare in eastern Colorado due to harvest of wild
plants for ornamental landscaping [52].

Related categories for SPECIES : Yucca baccata | Banana Yucca