I am thinking it might be a yucca? Picture taken October 2022.

Very definitely a yucca!!

I looked up Yucca filamentosa. This is what I read: It needs full sun and a well-drained soil, preferring an acid or slightly alkaline pH range of 5.5 to 7.5. It develops a large, fleshy, white taproot with deep lateral roots. Once planted and established, it is difficult to remove, as the roots keep sending up new shoots for many years.

I guess the only way to really know which variety it is, is by seeing the flower.

Definitely won't fit into my garden!

Thanks gardengal and Dave!

There really aren't all that many yuccas that are happy in a wet zone 5-6. Glauca would be another one, but yours is not glauca. Yes, any piece of root left over after removing the plant will sprout.

Just an aside.......this is a very tough plant that can take a lot of neglect and even abuse. As long as there is relatively decent drainage, it does not care about soil conditions, can grow - and flower - in a fair amount of shade and is salt and pollution tolerant. And is typically untouched by deer, bunnies or other browsing varmints.

almost impossible to kill when you decide you had enough of that nonsense...

due to waxy leaves.. even roundup wont kill it... without great effort ...

i think it has a hundred foot root that will come back years after you think you killed the dam thing.. lol

the leaves will also cut you.. and laugh at you.. as you walk away.. and that is real irritating...

ken

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=yucca+roots&t=newext&iax=images&ia=images

Most of the images in the search results Ken linked to are of a totally different plant: Manihot esculenta, known colloquially as "yuca" or "manioc" among the many Latin American cultures that use it as a food crop.

"Yuca" ≠ the genus Yucca.

Sounds like one needs to give much thought as to the placement of this plant! As for the yucca in my picture, it is situated in the garden of a public building.

The amount of "spreading" is a bit overstated, but mine do alittle of it, typically just grow another right beside the old one. Mine do fine in some shade in summer, but of course full sun is best. Can grow in bare rock/gravel like mine. Gives a "desert-like" look to a spot.

Yucca flaccida a possibility, too, just going by the image.

I agree with Yucca flaccida, because of the narrower, more flexible leaves. The inflorescence stems are pubescent with flaccida and glabrous with filamentosa. They are both considered part of the Yucca filamentosa complex. This complex needs more reseaerch, to decide whether Y. flaccida should be classified as a species, or considered a variety of Y. filamentosa. There is also the Spoon-leaved Yucca, Yucca filamentosa var. concava. Of course it's not possible to check for pubescence now.