Common name: Spanish Dagger/Bayonet, Adam's Needle, Palm Lily, Roman Candle • Manipuri: যেরুম লৈ Yerum lei
Botanical name: Yucca aloifolia Family: Agavaceae (agave family)
A very ornamental plant - this evergreen shrub grows to about 2-3 m.
Usually it is a single unbranched fleshy stem with a terminal crown of numerous
stiff, fleshy leaves tipped with a hard spine, resemble daggers. These leaves
are around 70 cm long,
5-8 cm wide, grey-green. The tall-conical flowering spike appears in late
summer, carrying numerous pendulous, creamy-white, cup-shaped flowers,
sometimes tinged outside with crimson. The Manipuri name Yerum lei
means egg-flower, and is inspired from the half open flowers which look like
white eggs. Fruits are seed-cases, around 5 cm long, with tiny glossy seeds,
0.5 cm long. Plants do not
flower every year, requiring hot summers to initiate flowering. The
flowers are produced in the autumn and are often damaged by early frosts.
The scent of the flowers is most pronounced at night
| Photographed in J.N.U, Delhi. |
|
ntroduced