Several years ago, a neighbor put some yard waste with some pruning on the street. As one does (this is normal behavior, right?), I examined the prunings, and wondered if I could root a plant from a cutting.

Well, yes, it rooted in water, and is doing quite well here, in a pot, but I know almost nothing about spiky plants, so I'm wondering what it might be. The photos may not be good enough for a positive ID, but if someone could at least tell me what to look at or for, I may be able to make some headway.I don't know what the parent plant looks like—it must be in the neighbor's back yard—but I think it must be a fairly large plant, judging from what was pruned away.

The first 2 photos are from Dec 2019, the 3rd photo is from last summer just before I up-potted it, and the last photo is from this spring; it was in a 1-gallon pot in the 2019 and 2020 pictures, and I think it's in a 3-gallon now. With time the leaves have become stronger and the tips more 'unfriendly', and I think you can see the serrations on the leaf edges.

Thanks for having a look,
Virginia

Pineapple?

Yes, absolutely normal behavior!!!

It does look like pineapple but that would be odd for someone in 8b to have it growing to excess. Are the leaves dangerously pointy @ the ends?

or yucca?

That seems more likely, but I would expect the spike along the sides of the leaves to be more pronounced, but those are not plants I have as much experience with as pineapples.

Pineapple never occurred to me as an ID, since it is hardy here in 8b/9a. Are there hardy pinapples?

It does look fairly similar, though, so perhaps a hardier Bromeliad?

Thanks,
Virginia

Some kind of Yucca.

Nice bug. What is it?

purpleinopp said:Yes, absolutely normal behavior!!!

It does look like pineapple but that would be odd for someone in 8b to have it growing to excess. Are the leaves dangerously pointy @ the ends?

Yes, the leaf tips are becoming more dangerous with maturity, though not razor sharp as some plants are. As a small plant, the leaves were more flexible, and the pointy ends not at all bothersome. Now, I keep it where I won't bump into it accidentally.

sedumzz said:or yucca?

Yuccas are reasonably common here, and I think there are at least two species that are native here. The ones I'm familiar with don't have leaves as 'strappy', if that's the word I want, but I'm definitely no expert.

I see millions of yyuccas that look similar to that at home depot/lowes

DaisyI said:Some kind of Yucca.

Nice bug. What is it?

I think the bug is a Green Leafhopper (Acanalonia conica)? I thought there was some weird growth on the plant, but it was just that guy wearing camouflage.

sedumzz said:I see millions of yyuccas that look similar to that at home depot/lowes

My trouble is that all these spiky-leaved plants look pretty much the same to me... bromeliads, yuccas, agaves...

I've been having some pineapples survive in very sheltered spots here, one even made a great pineapple almost a big as a store-bought one, a few struggling to just stay alive, and a few died but I think they were already dead from drought before the last winter. Every time we eat one I try to grow the top & they actually do surprisingly well if brought inside near a sunny window for winter too. It's been fun! I trim the tips off of any leaves when they are where they might impale someone.

Yucca is making the most sense so far to me. Are you able to spot the potential mama plant around anywhere?

Perhaps Yucca gloriosa? It seems to have longer, narrower leaves than some others.
http://www.namethatplant.net/p...
http://southeasternflora.com/v...

Another possibility may be Billbergia nutans, Queen's Tears.

purpleinopp said:I've been having some pineapples survive in very sheltered spots here, one even made a great pineapple almost a big as a store-bought one, a few struggling to just stay alive, and a few died but I think they were already dead from drought before the last winter. Every time we eat one I try to grow the top & they actually do surprisingly well if brought inside near a sunny window for winter too. It's been fun! I trim the tips off of any leaves when they are where they might impale someone.

Yucca is making the most sense so far to me. Are you able to spot the potential mama plant around anywhere?

I think the mama plant must be in the neighbors' back yard, or at least not visible from the street. They have some nicer-than-average plants, including some big old camellias. I really don't know about the hardiness. Some things that are supposedly tender do well here unprotected, but other things not so much.

This plant has been in a fairly shady spot in the yard, and survived 2 winters unprotected here. I was assuming that the parent was large enough that it was always outdoors, but I suppose they might have had it in a large pot that overwintered indoors? And they do have a small greenhouse that I can see from the street, so maybe it isn't hardy here, and I've just been lucky so far?

KellyFW said:Another possibility may be Billbergia nutans, Queen's Tears.

I'd like that, but I think the leaves on my plant might be too rigid/pointy... The Billbergia photos I see online look more ribbony/floppy, to use the precise botanical terms.

Are the leaves rather succulent or more bendy and flat?

Hamwild said:Are the leaves rather succulent or more bendy and flat?

I would describe the leaves as firm and only somewhat flexible, like a yucca or mahonia, not flat and bendy like ribbon grass, for example.

It might be succulent, but not in the way I'd normally use that word... it doesn't have the yielding, fleshy texture that I associate with succulents.

Looking online for guidance, I see that there are differences of opinion about that term, and some people use it for plants like yuccas, for example, but others would not.

scvirginia said:

I would describe the leaves as firm and only somewhat flexible, like a yucca or mahonia, not flat and bendy like ribbon grass, for example.

It might be succulent, but not in the way I'd normally use that word... it doesn't have the yielding, fleshy texture that I associate with succulents.

Looking online for guidance, I see that there are differences of opinion about that term, and some people use it for plants like yuccas, for example, but others would not.

That's true, I think succulent is too broad of a term.

I just couldn't tell if the leaves were more thick than thin and more... fleshy. Thought that might help determine what it is.

It's not Yucca filamentosa, but beyond that, I'm not very knowledgeable about them.

@mcvansoest, does this resemble any Yucca you're familiar with? Or anything else that it may resemble if not a Yucca?