Typical filamentosa is native to the southeastern Coastal Plain (centered in Va. to Ala.), but it is also cultivated inland, and has become locally naturalized. See notes under flaccida. Curiously, despite the toughness of mature leaves, it is reported that young leaves were traditionally eaten by Cherokee Indians, when "parboiled or fried in grease" (White 1975). In Mexico, flowering stalks, petals and fruits of filamentosa and other species of Yucca are cooked for human food, containing diverse beneficial nutrients (Mulik & Ozuna 2020). Also, cattle, deer and other large herbivores are known to consume Yucca species, especially when starving (e.g. Williams 1918, Atwood 1941). However, varied culinary, medicinal or toxic effects may result from diverse steroidal saponins in Yucca (Jiménez et al. 2021).