From the great juicy, leafless, branchless stalk of the yucca, soap is prepared, and strong fibres useful in making paper, rope and fabrics.
The rather small tubular yellow or red flowers are borne on simple or branched leafless stems, and are generally densely clustered.
This word, applied in the form of KaKros by the ancient Greeks to some prickly plant, was adopted by Linnaeus as the name of a group of curious succulent or fleshy-stemmed plants, most of them prickly and leafless, some of which produce beautiful flowers, and are now so popular in our gardens that the name has become familiar.
The stems are in most cases leafless, using the term in a popular sense; the leaves, if present at all, being generally reduced to minute scales.
It is a hardy deciduous shrub, native of North America, which bears a profusion of rich yellow flowers in autumn and winter when the plant is leafless.