A devastating stem rot disease of Yucca aloifolia, an ornamental plant, was observed in the greenhouse of the Faculty of Agric., Minia University. Naturally infected plants showed typical symptoms of soft rot on the stems. Four isolates of motile, rod shaped, gram negative bacteria were isolated from soft rotted areas. All isolates were pathogenic to yucca plants and induce soft rot symptoms, however, bacterial isolates differed in their virulence. Through different biochemical tests, bacterial isolates differed in their characteristics. The isolated pathogenic bacteria was identified as Erwinia chrysanthemi. Host range studies revealed that the bacterium was able to produce soft rot on fruits of eggplant, tomato, squash, pepper, potato tubers, carrot, turnip, onion, chrysanthemum and sunflower. Stems of maize, cowpea, broad bean show no symptoms and remain unaffected.                 The extracts of experimentally diseased yucca stems were active in pectinase and cellulase. On the other hand, no enzymes activities were detected in healthy tissues.                 A correlation between the total and reducing sugars and the pathogenicity of the tested bacterial isolates were detected.