Can Yucca gigantea/elephantipes hybridize??

[TropicsEnjoyer]

I had this question recently pop into my mind. It baffles me that these houseplant yuccas are so common and yet there are no known hybrids of Y. gigantea with any other yucca species. Are they not compatible maybe or is it just that nobody has really tried? There are many other hybrids out there so i’m surprised this species isn’t part of any. Imagine crossing one with rostrata and getting a nice soft, floppy, thin leaved that branches regularly. I would like to try myself but unfortunately my gigantea is years away from ever reaching flowering size. I just think it’s an interesting unexplored possibility. 

So, let me know if you have any ideas or experience yourself!

[Silas_Sancona]

37 minutes ago, TropicsEnjoyer said:

I had this question recently pop into my mind. It baffles me that these houseplant yuccas are so common and yet there are no known hybrids of Y. gigantea with any other yucca species. Are they not compatible maybe or is it just that nobody has really tried? There are many other hybrids out there so i’m surprised this species isn’t part of any. Imagine crossing one with rostrata and getting a nice soft, floppy, thin leaved that branches regularly. I would like to try myself but unfortunately my gigantea is years away from ever reaching flowering size. I just think it’s an interesting unexplored possibility. 

So, let me know if you have any ideas or experience yourself!

It's an interesting question...  There aren't any " sections " within Yucca that might hinder Y. g/e crossing with any of the others -that i'm aware of-

So, why aren't there any crosses involving it  ....that we know of?? 

Casual thoughts on this might resolve around flower timing,  ..or maybe the moth that pollinates it doesn't pollinate others / only lives in Central America where Y. gigantea grows?

Despite seeing these everywhere in my old neighborhoods back in CA, never once recall seeing fruit formation atop any of them.  Don't recall the sight of any fruits on some of the S. Cal specimens i've seen through the years either 🤔

See a similar thing w/ yucca grown in yards / commercial landscapes here ..Lots of different sps that flower like crazy each year, ..but rarely see a single, old  inflo w/ a developing / opened fruit hanging from it.


Y. gigantea can flower at a somewhat small size, ...so, you could theoretically attempt by - hand crosses w/ other species,  ..if you have them around and everyone is flowering at the same time..

 

[TropicsEnjoyer]

19 hours ago, Silas_Sancona said:

Y. gigantea can flower at a somewhat small size, ...so, you could theoretically attempt by - hand crosses w/ other species,  ..if you have them around and everyone is flowering at the same time..

Your points are valid for sure, I forgot that yucca moths are very picky and are basically out of range for this specific species in the US. Timing is definitely a variable too although I haven’t really paid attention to flowering times. 

I will definitely attempt this hybrid whenever it becomes possible for me. I’m assuming my filamentosa or silver anniversary will flower much quicker than my gigantea, but it’ll at least give me an opportunity to practice.

[Silas_Sancona]

13 minutes ago, TropicsEnjoyer said:

Your points are valid for sure, I forgot that yucca moths are very picky and are basically out of range for this specific species in the US. Timing is definitely a variable too although I haven’t really paid attention to flowering times. 

I will definitely attempt this hybrid whenever it becomes possible for me. I’m assuming my filamentosa or silver anniversary will flower much quicker than my gigantea, but it’ll at least give me an opportunity to practice.

Can't find it atm  ( ..Think all the AI generated garbage has pushed out a lot of the good web links. ) but i'd found a link to a detailed article discussing hand pollination of Yucca and what to do when trying crosses.  ..There's a certain time for transferring pollen, etc

Pretty sure  
@Palmensammler has done Yucca crosses and could guide you w/ the "  do this, not thats " kinds of advise.

[Palmensammler]

A successful polination for me starts when it's dark outside. Then the flowers are wide open. I use a head-lamp, some small brushes, a small sheet of clean paper and some thin but stable grass strolls. I collect the pollen carefully from the top of the anthers of the donor flower with the brush , try to form some kind of a pollen ball on the paper and transfer it into the stigma of another flower. This can be the same plant or onother yucca. The other flower should be one on the outermost part of the flower stalk and not an elder one. In order to move the pollen into the stigma i normally use the thin grass stroll. This prevents damages of the stigma. Don't forget to change the brush and the grass stroll when using pollen from another yucca to avoid unwanted cross pollination. 

After a few days you will see if you were successful when the stigma starts to swell. Don't forget tags on the pollinated flowers to identify  your cross.

Don't worry if it does not work always,  that's life.  Don't forget, your not a yucca-moth.

Good luck

Eckhard 

[TropicsEnjoyer]

4 hours ago, Palmensammler said:

A successful polination for me starts when it's dark outside. Then the flowers are wide open. I use a head-lamp, some small brushes, a small sheet of clean paper and some thin but stable grass strolls. I collect the pollen carefully from the top of the anthers of the donor flower with the brush , try to form some kind of a pollen ball on the paper and transfer it into the stigma of another flower. This can be the same plant or onother yucca. The other flower should be one on the outermost part of the flower stalk and not an elder one. In order to move the pollen into the stigma i normally use the thin grass stroll. This prevents damages of the stigma. Don't forget to change the brush and the grass stroll when using pollen from another yucca to avoid unwanted cross pollination. 

After a few days you will see if you were successful when the stigma starts to swell. Don't forget tags on the pollinated flowers to identify  your cross.

Don't worry if it does not work always,  that's life.  Don't forget, your not a yucca-moth.

Good luck

Eckhard 

Thanks so much for the guidance. I will definitely use this for future reference. However, what would I do if say the yuccas don’t flower at exactly the same time? Is there a way to preserve pollen in that case?

[Palmensammler]

I once had them in the fridge for some time, but they should be dry at this stage. Success was o.k. 

What I forgot to mention is,  that it seems impossible for me to pollinate wet flowers. 

Eckhard 

[TropicsEnjoyer]

Alright, noted. Thanks again, I will provide updates in the future whenever I get flowers (probably a long time from now).

[TropicsEnjoyer]

Very funny how I was talking about how my yucca probably won’t flower for a good while. I’m out of town for a bit and I happened to salvage 2 cuttings of a flowering yucca gigantea. Gotta root them first but still very happy with them. 

[TropicsEnjoyer]

On 5/24/2025 at 7:19 PM, TropicsEnjoyer said:

Very funny how I was talking about how my yucca probably won’t flower for a good while. I’m out of town for a bit and I happened to salvage 2 cuttings of a flowering yucca gigantea. Gotta root them first but still very happy with them. 

Fast forward to today, these stems rooted really well after 2 months forgotten in a pot. I finally got around to planting them in ground. They grew new growth points and i’m expecting low maintenance. I hope the leaves still get large. 

Here they are in the pic, planted between my italian cypress trees. 

[Hongopode]

I created this account just to tell y'all that yes, it's possible and easy to make gigantea hybrids, so I just don't understand why they aren't more common. On my first attempt I got a lot of fruits using gigantea pollen to pollinate several aloifolia. As several clones of aloifolia are self-fertile (not all of them though) some of the seedling are just pure aloifolia, but that makes obvious that most of them are hybrids (the fact that they look exactly like gigantea coming from aloifolia seeds makes it very obvious too). 

You can see at the left a pure aloifolia (narrower, darker leaves). Almost everything else are hybrids. Would it be called gigantea x aloifolia or aloifolia x gigantea?

For anyone that wants to try: if you have an adult gigantea, you can make  top growth cuttings and the first thing they'll do once they root is flowering, so you should be able to have fresh gigantea pollen whenever you want (although it's definitely much easier to just store the pollen). 

[TropicsEnjoyer]

On 4/1/2026 at 7:23 AM, Hongopode said:

I created this account just to tell y'all that yes, it's possible and easy to make gigantea hybrids, so I just don't understand why they aren't more common. On my first attempt I got a lot of fruits using gigantea pollen to pollinate several aloifolia. As several clones of aloifolia are self-fertile (not all of them though) some of the seedling are just pure aloifolia, but that makes obvious that most of them are hybrids (the fact that they look exactly like gigantea coming from aloifolia seeds makes it very obvious too). 

You can see at the left a pure aloifolia (narrower, darker leaves). Almost everything else are hybrids. Would it be called gigantea x aloifolia or aloifolia x gigantea?

For anyone that wants to try: if you have an adult gigantea, you can make  top growth cuttings and the first thing they'll do once they root is flowering, so you should be able to have fresh gigantea pollen whenever you want (although it's definitely much easier to just store the pollen). 

I thought this thread got lost to the times but i’m so happy to see that someone has in fact done it. My giganteas are currently recovering from the brutal cold so I’m not exactly sure if i’ll be getting flowers anytime soon but one can always hope. I have a yucca pallida x filamentosa “silver anniversary” hybrid that i’m assuming would be the one most likely to flower this year so maybe I can save pollen from that one. 

That leads me to the question @Hongopode how do you store pollen and how long could it stay viable for?