Family: Asparagaceae
High Risk Traits:
- Broad climate suitability, including tropical climates
- Naturalized in South Africa, Australia and elsewhere
- A weedy plant with potentially negative environmental impacts
- Other yucca species have become invasive
- leaf margins saw-toothlike (sharply denticulate to serrulate); leaf tips very sharp
- Spiny leaves make plants unpalatable to animals
- Possible toxins and allergens to animals and people
- Shade-tolerant
- Tolerates many soil types
- Can from dense thickets
- Self-compatible, although seed production may be limited without cross-pollination
- Spreads vegetatively
- Fleshy-fruited, and seeds, when produced, dispersed by birds and other frugivorous animals
- Can resprout if only aboveground vegetative material is removed
Low Risk Traits:
- Limited seed production outside native range
- Used as a barrier plant
- Long time to reproductive maturity
- Limited seed production makes long distance and inadvertent dispersal unlikely
- Herbicides may provide effective control