Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Yucca

Yuc′ca

,
Noun.
(Zool.)
See
Flicker
,
Noun.
, 2.

Yuc′ca

,
Noun.
[NL., from
Yuca
, its name in St. Domingo.]
(Bot.)
A genus of American liliaceous, sometimes arborescent, plants having long, pointed, and often rigid, leaves at the top of a more or less woody stem, and bearing a large panicle of showy white blossoms.
☞ The species with more rigid leaves (as
Yucca aloifolia
,
Yucca Treculiana
, and
Yucca baccata
) are called
Spanish bayonet
, and one with softer leaves (
Yucca filamentosa
) is called
bear grass
, and
Adam’s needle
.
Yucca moth
(Zool.)
,
a small silvery moth (
Pronuba yuccasella
) whose larvae feed on plants of the genus
Yucca
.

Definition 2024


Yucca

Yucca

See also: yucca

Translingual

Etymology

Named after the Caribbean name for cassava meaning Manihot esculenta by botanist Carl von Linnaeus (1707-1778).[1][2]

Proper noun

Yucca f

  1. A taxonomic genus within the family Asparagaceae – the yuccas.

Hypernyms

Hyponyms

References

  1. Erhardt, Walter & Götz, Erich & Bödeker, Nils & Seybold, Siegmund, Zander. Handwörterbuch der Pflanzennamen. Dictionary of plant names. Dictionnaire des noms de plantes, Ulmer, 2000.
  2. Hyam, Roger & Pankhurst, Richard, Plants and their Names. A Concise Dictionary, Oxford University Press, US, 1995.

English

Proper noun

Yucca

  1. The Yucca mountain.

yucca

yucca

See also: Yucca

English

A flowering Adam’s needle or common yucca (Yucca filamentosa) near Kerikeri, New Zealand

Noun

yucca (plural yuccas)

  1. Any of several evergreen plants of the genus Yucca, having long, pointed, and rigid leaves at the top of a woody stem, and bearing a large panicle of showy white blossoms.
  2. (now proscribed, obsolete) The yuca (cassava).

Usage notes

While yucca was formerly also used on occasion to refer to the yuca (cassava), this usage is now regarded as erroneous.

Synonyms

Translations

References

  1. Mary Irish; Gary Irish (2000) Agaves, Yuccas, and Related Plants: a Gardener's Guide, Portland, Or.: Timber Press, ISBN 978-0-88192-442-8, page 18.
  2. Umberto Quattrocchi (2000) CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names, volume 4 (R–Z), Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, ISBN 978-0-8493-2678-3, page 2862.