Yucca elephantipes Jewel

Yucca elephantipes Jewel, commonly known as Elephant Foot Yucca, stands out from the type species with its variegated pale yellow foliage, reduced vigour, and limited cold resistance. It is a ramified plant that is most often cultivated in pots to protect it from the cold in winter. It is appreciated for its exotic appearance and characteristic silhouette of a desert plant, with a widened base and crowned with clusters of rigid leaves. An aged specimen will flower in the form of upright panicles adorned with numerous green-white bell-shaped flowers. In open ground, Yucca elephantipes Jewel requires a sunny exposure, tolerates any well-drained soil, and is very resistant to drought.

Originating from Mexico and Guatemala, and not very hardy, Yucca elephantipes is most often cultivated as an indoor plant. It belongs to the agave family. The Jewel cultivar is even more decorative due to its yellow striped foliage. When young, this yucca forms a shaggy tuft. It then develops a massive false trunk, widened at its base, with a greyish colour, which eventually separates into several branches. In its natural habitat, the plant slowly reaches a height of 6 m (20 ft) and a width of 3 m (10 ft). In our temperate climates, its dimensions will be more modest, and it will not exceed 2 m (7 ft) in height and 1 m (3 ft) in width if grown in a container. The foliage, which develops at the end of the "trunk" and each of its branches, persists throughout the year. It is made up of multiple rough and rigid linear leaves, measuring 60 to 80 cm (24 to 32 in) in length, with a margin adorned with small harmless spines. Their colour is a fairly dark green, more or less streaked with cream towards the centre, and green-yellow to cream-yellow towards the margins. If not cut, the dried leaf bases, remnants of old leaves, remain attached to the trunk and branches for several years. Flowering occurs in summer after several years of growth, signalling the death of the rosette, which will be replaced by another. Plants grown in pots rarely flower. The slightly fragrant flowers are white to greenish in colour, bell-shaped, and gathered in large leafy, branched, and upright panicles. The petals are edible, as are the young shoots, which can be consumed as vegetables.

Yucca elephantipes Jewel is a plant with original architecture and is easy to grow in a large pot. It can be moved from the terrace in summer to the veranda in winter and can perfectly decorate a very bright and not-too-heated room in winter. In regions free from frost, it is ideal for structuring a large rockery or for brilliantly occupying the centre of an exotic flower bed. It can be planted alone or paired with Puya caerulea, Agave americana, or even prickly pear cactus on an arid slope.