Yucca 'Bright Star' lives up to its name

I stopped dead in my tracks the first time I saw Yucca ‘Bright Star’. It was in a private garden in the East Bay hills, which I visited as part of the Garden Conservancy’s Open Day program in May 2013. Four Yucca ‘Bright Star’ shared a bed with Opuntia violaceae, the golden yellow of the yuccas contrasting beautifully with the blue and purple hues of the prickly pear (see this photo).

Over the following years, I encountered Yucca ‘Bright Star’ here and there—in Morro Bay on the Central Coast, at the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek, and at fellow blogger Hoover Boo’s Piece of Eden—but it wasn’t until December 2017 that I obtained my own specimen. In my neck of the woods, ‘Bright Star’ was next to impossible to find in those days.

Yucca ‘Bright Star’ in our front yard, September 2022

In January 2018, I planted my newly acquired Yucca ‘Bright Star’ in the long bed next to the sidewalk. It has grown consistently but slowly, and this fall it flowered for the first time. The rosette is 4 ft. in diameter, and the flower stalk is 5 ft. tall.

November 2022

Typically, yuccas bloom in the summer, but an unseasonably early storm that brought over 3" of rain in September lulled all kinds of plants into thinking it was spring or summer. A few weeks after the storm, trees like redbuds and acacias started to bloom as if it were February or March. It’s likely the rains also tricked our Yucca ‘Bright Star’ into flowering.

If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, you know that I have a curious mind, which sometimes leads me down sinuous paths. As I was collecting photos for this post, I realized that I didn’t really know what Yucca ‘Bright Star’ was and where it had come from. 

A bit of Googling led me to the information I was after. I found out that Yucca ‘Bright Star’ had been granted plant patent #17,653. Google’s own patents database revealed the whole story. The plant described in plant patent #17,653 was a Yucca gloriosa var. recurvifolia cultivar called ‘WALBRISTAR’. It was first discovered in 2000 by U.K. nurseryman Tim Crowther:

“Each year, the inventor propagates Yucca by removing the side shoots, commonly known as ‘pups’, from the base of the stems of the parent plants of variegated Yucca gloriosa (unpatented). In 2000, in the course of this propagation, the inventor observed one side shoot whose rosette of foliage was atypical of the parent. Approximately one half side of this atypical rosette exhibited a greater degree of golden variegation. The inventor removed this one side shoot with the intention of attempting to produce a new plant form whose entire rosette would exhibit a uniformly more golden variegation. The inventor rooted the first-discovered side shoot and removed its growing point in order to encourage rapid basal side shoot production. In 2001, the inventor observed that three side shoots had arisen with varying degrees of golden variegation. The inventor observed that one of these three side shoots exhibited a uniform and significant degree of golden variegation. This one side shoot, ‘WALBRISTAR’, was removed and transferred to the inventor’s tissue culture laboratory where it was successfully initiated into culture and then multiplied by the same method of removing basal shoot cuttings, but in vitro.”

The patent was applied for in December 2005, granted in April 2007, and expires in December 2025. Presumably, after that date, Yucca ‘WALBRISTAR’ (aka ‘Bright Star’, the name used for marketing purposes) can be propagated by anybody without having to pay royalties.

Since the patent application was filed, the botanical name Yucca gloriosa var. recurvifolia has changed. According to Plants of the World Online, operated by the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, Yucca gloriosa var. recurvifolia and Yucca recurvifolia are now considered synonyms of Yucca gloriosa var. tristis.

Distribution of Yucca gloriosa var. tristis according to Plants of the World Online

Yucca gloriosa var. tristis is “native to the southeastern United States, from coastal southeastern Virginia south through Florida and west to Texas" where it’s “often found in sandy habits like coastal sand dunes and beach scrub” [Wikipedia]. Its common names include curve-leaf yucca, curved-leaved Spanish-dagger.

Yucca gloriosa var. tristis is hardy to 0°F (zone 7). ‘Bright Star’ may not be quite as hardy as the plain species—variegated forms rarely are—but it still makes a great landscaping plant for a large portion of the US and much of the UK. It’s not a speed demon by any measure: Plant Delights Nursery describes it as a “dreadfully slow-growing plant...slower than DC Beltway traffic”. That’s OK, though. It’s beautiful even when small.

One interesting side note: The patent application states that “[no] flowers have been produced to date.” At the date the application was filed (December 1, 2005), the original plant would have been 5 years old. For comparison purposes, the flowering specimen is our garden is approximately 7 years old. If you have your own Yucca ‘Bright Star’, this should give you a good idea of when to expect flowers.

© Gerhard Bock, 2022. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.