The arching racemes of this triffid-like plant are dripping with tubular flowers on the Systematic Beds.
This hardy succulent plant originates from Mexico, where it grows at 2,600m to 3,400m in canyons and ravines in pine-oak and fir forest. Although regarded as a hardy species Beschorneria yuccoides relishes a sunny, well-drained situation in the south of England. In leaf it resembles the closely related genus Yucca, which also belongs to the asparagus family, Asparagaceae. A basal rosette of fleshy, glaucous leaves are produced, from which erupt the red-tinted flower stems to 2m in length. The flower panicle comprises numerous reddish bracts, and from these emerge slender, pendulous, green flowers. The genus was named to commemorate the German psychiatrist and amateur botanist Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Beschorner, 1806 – 1873.