Species
+

Yucca pallida McKelvey

Pale Leaf Yucca, Pale Yucca, pale yucca, twistleaf yucca

Climate known 50 photographs Cactus or succulent
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Yucca pallida, sometimes called pale yucca, is a species of yucca native to Northern Mexico and parts of the blackland prairies of northern and central Texas, and notable for its light-colored leaves that range from a pale blue-gray to sage-green in color.

Text from Wikipedia, “Yucca pallida”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Yucca

Yucca is both the scientific name and common name for a genus native to North America from Panama to southern Canada. It contains 50 accepted species. In addition to yucca, they are also known as Adam's needle or Spanish-bayonet. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Yucca”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
McKelvey
Native to
Texas
Wild records
1332 in range· 353 open

At a glance

Warmest month
34°C
Aug, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
886mm/yr
12 wet months · peak May 111 mm (CHELSA)
Light
17–44DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Yucca, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (February to June and September to November in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 886 mm a year, wettest May at 111 mm, driest January at 48 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 44 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -6.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Yucca pallida var. edentata (Trel.) Cory; Yucca rupicola Trel.; Yucca rupicola var. edentata Trel.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Yucca, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (February to June and September to November in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (674 mm of 886 mm) takes 8 months, February to June and September to November. Mean temperature moves 20.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to May and August to December.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 886 mm a year, wettest May at 111 mm, driest January at 48 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

886 mm a year at the habitat, 674 mm of it February to June and September to November. Wettest month May at 111 mm, driest January at 48 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 790 mm to 968 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 44 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 44 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -6.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -6.0 °C, the absolute minimum -17.6 °C, about 35 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 4.1 °C in January (across the envelope cells 3.4 °C to 5.5 °C), warmest day 34.4 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -6.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 53 to 58% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 15 °C in Dec to 34 °C in Aug; mean night from 4 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 886 mm of rain a year, most in May. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 409 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -17.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 41.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost41.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)-17.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 17–44RH 53–58 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 409 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C15 / 14–1618 / 16–1821 / 21–2226 / 25–2629 / 28–2932 / 32–3234 / 34–3534 / 34–3531 / 30–3126 / 25–2620 / 19–2115 / 14–16
Night °C4 / 3–66 / 5–710 / 9–1114 / 13–1519 / 18–1922 / 22–2324 / 23–2524 / 24–2521 / 20–2115 / 15–1610 / 9–115 / 4–6
Rain mm48 / 36–5962 / 55–7079 / 68–9068 / 60–81111 / 100–125111 / 103–11951 / 46–5957 / 50–6576 / 68–8499 / 84–11668 / 51–7656 / 42–68
DLI19 / 19–2024 / 23–2429 / 29–3136 / 35–3838 / 37–3942 / 41–4344 / 44–4440 / 40–4134 / 34–3426 / 26–2620 / 19–2117 / 17–18
RH %56 / 55–5756 / 55–5755 / 54–5755 / 53–5658 / 57–5957 / 56–5854 / 53–5553 / 52–5455 / 54–5656 / 55–5756 / 55–5856 / 55–58

Each figure is the median across the 409 grid cells holding the 1258 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1161:1639 (31.925, -98.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -17.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -6.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 409 distinct grid cells holding the 1258 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1161:1639 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 32.00_-98.125, lapse-corrected -30 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 331 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeTexas
Kew's description“perennial” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker32.272, -97.557 · in the densest population, 1287 records (97% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1332 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 353 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5 km away. 74 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1332 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Yucca pallidaYucca pallidaYucca pallidaYucca pallidaYucca pallidaYucca pallidaYucca pallidaYucca pallida

Photographs: (c) Sam Kieschnick, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) saltyhiker, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Roz Hunter, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Yucca pallida, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.Org User (2020) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.Org User (2020) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.Org User (2019) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Yucca pallida: Clary, K., Hodgson, W., Salywon, A. & Puente, R.
IUCN (2018) · IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
Occurrence Download
GBIF.Org User (2018) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.Org User (2018) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.Org User (2018) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.Org User (2018) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Yucca 51 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 14 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.