Spanish bayonet is a plant of the American coastline, native from southern Virginia around the Gulf coast to Texas, growing in sandy soils and on dunes where salt spray, drought, and poor drainage would defeat most other plants. A member of the asparagus family, it builds a trunk over time as spent leaf bases accumulate, branching after each flowering when lateral buds form below the spent floral stalk. Stems that tip over will root along their length and continue growing, a resilience that suits a life on shifting coastal ground.

The flowers, massive panicles of pendant, bell-shaped white blooms, appear in the center of the plant from spring through late summer depending on the year, and are both fragrant and beautiful in evening light. The plant performs best in full sun with very well-drained sandy soil; in shade, leaves become soft and small and flowering is rare. Its stiff, sharply tipped leaves with no marginal filaments distinguish it from Yucca filamentosa, which carries the curling threads along its leaf edges. Use it as a specimen where the scale of the bloom panicle has room to register, or as a barrier planting along a coastal garden boundary. The leaf-tip spines make it inhospitable to trespassers of all kinds.