noun

yucca

YUK-uh/ˈjʌkə/

A desert plant with swordlike leaves and white flowers.

The flowering yucca has stiff leaves and creamy white blooms.

A single flowering yucca rooted in a small patch of dry, stony ground, with a dense rosette of rigid sword-shaped leaves and a tall stalk bearing clusters of pendant creamy-white, bell-shaped flowers.

Etymology

Spanish yuca named cassava, so the modern sense reflects a shift to a different plant: the sword-leaved yucca. The Spanish name probably comes from Taíno.

In context

Old Time Radio Researchers17:28

the shape of the giant cactus in the yucca trees up ahead

Stand By for Crime - Death On The Tracks

More examples

White flowers rose above the yucca.
A yucca grew in the dry garden.
Several yuccas lined the rocky path.

Forms

yucca · yuccas

Similar words

agave: Agave is another rosette-forming plant with stiff leaves; yucca has distinctive flower clusters and botanical differences.
cassava: Cassava supplies an edible starchy root; it is unrelated to the desert yucca despite the similar name.