The Collaborative International Dictionary
Yucca \Yuc"ca\, n. [NL., from Yuca, its name in St. Domingo.] (Bot.) A genus of American liliaceous, sometimes arborescent, plants having long, pointed, and often rigid, leaves at the top of a more or less woody stem, and bearing a large panicle of showy white blossoms.
Note: The species with more rigid leaves (as Yucca aloifolia, Yucca Treculiana, and Yucca baccata) are called Spanish bayonet, and one with softer leaves ( Yucca filamentosa) is called bear grass, and Adam's needle.
Yucca moth (Zo["o]l.), a small silvery moth ( Pronuba yuccasella) whose larv[ae] feed on plants of the genus Yucca.
WordNet
n. yucca of southern United States having a clump of basal grasslike leaves and a central stalk with a terminal raceme of small whitish flowers [syn: Yucca smalliana]
yucca of west central United States having a clump of basal grasslike leaves and a central stalk with a terminal raceme of small whitish flowers [syn: Yucca glauca]
stemless plant with tufts of grasslike leaves and erect panicle of minute creamy white flowers; southwestern United States and Mexico [syn: Nolina microcarpa]
plant of western North America having woody rhizomes and tufts of stiff grasslike basal leaves and spikes of creamy white flowers [syn: squaw grass, Xerophyllum tenax]
Usage examples of "bear grass".
Jondalar came over to them and lowered himself carefully to the grass mat beside Ayla while he balanced with both hands a watertight but handleless and somewhat flexible cup, woven out of bear grass in a chevron design of contrasting colors, filled with hot mint tea.
The sun was glinting on the placid waters of the river when I made my way down to the bank, to a great ten-oared keel boat that lay on the Bear Grass, with its square sail furled.
They were about the size that would fit over a thigh, and had been made of strips of wet rawhide, braided and allowed to dry stiff, then wrapped tightly with bear grass.
I turned my head so I could look straight ahead, and I saw a clump of bear grass there, and to my left another.