The Tree Yucca of Jardins de Mossen Costa i Llobera
Most people who grow a yucca in their garden are growing something a few metres tall at most. Barcelona's tree yucca, on the seaward path below the steps up to Miramar on Montjuic, is 12 metres tall with a trunk 1.6 metres round, a genuinely tree-sized specimen of a plant most visitors assume tops out at shrub height. Yucca filifera comes from the high desert plateaus of central Mexico, where old wild specimens branch into candelabra shapes and can outlive the people who planted their garden cousins many times over. Barcelona catalogued this one as a tree of local interest only in 2024, with no planting date recorded and no history beyond its own measurements. It grows a short walk from an equally uncommon neighbour, an African coral tree in the cactus gardens above, on a stretch of path built specifically to show off plants that have no business surviving comfortably on a Mediterranean hillside. Nobody has confirmed how old this one actually is, or when it went in. If you know, the city's own catalogue does not.
Jardins de Mossen Costa i Llobera, on the sea side of the pedestrian path beside the base of the Miramar steps, Poble-sec, BarcelonaYou can recognise it by a yucca grown to 12 metres on a trunk 1.6 metres round, tree sized where most people expect a shrub. It stands on the seaward side of the path at the foot of the Miramar steps.
Free, public garden, no gate, open daily
Teleferic de Montjuic (Miramar station), about 5 minutes' walk; or bus to Avinguda Miramar
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.
- In the official register: Ajuntament de Barcelona, Arbres d'interes local
- Ajuntament de Barcelona, Arbres d'interes local (the designated singular-tree register, not the street inventory) (register_id 99400761023)
