Yucca filamentosa ‘Color Guard’

Yucca filamentosa, commonly called Adam’s needle, Spanish bayonet or yucca, is a virtually stemless evergreen shrub (though it looks more like a perennial than a shrub) that is native to beaches, sand dunes and fields from South Carolina south to Florida and Mississippi. ‘Color Guard’ is a gold-centered variegated form. It features a basal rosette to 2-3′ tall and as wide of rigid, sword-shaped, spine-tipped, leaves (to 30″ long and to 4′ wide) with green margins and striking creamy gold centers. Long filamentous (as per species name) curly white threads are found along the leaf margins. In late spring, a flowering stalk rises from the center of each rosette, typically to 5-6′ tall, bearing a long terminal panicles of nodding, bell-shaped, fragrant, creamy white flowers. Fruits are elliptical dehiscent capsules.