Overall, this species is larger than other nolinas. It has numerous strap-shaped leaves 2–4 cm wide, with fine teeth on the margins and no curling fibers. Its flower stalk is 2.5– 9 cm diam. at the base, the bracts are persistent. One to several trunks, 0.5–2.1 m tall. leaf Flat; margins with close, minute teeth, not shredding; blade 50–140 cm long, 2–4 cm broad. flower In panicles 90–180 cm tall, 20–130 cm wide; stalk at the base 26–90 mm diam.; bracts persistent; tepals 2–5 mm long; Apr.–Jun. fruit Capsule 9–13 mm long, about as wide, notched at the base and tip.
HABITAT/RANGE
Native; rocky areas in deserts and piñon–juniper woodland, 900–2,100 m; s. Calif. Similar species Easily confused with Chaparral Beargrass. Yucca: Yuccas There are about 40 species of Yucca; they range from the U.S. to Central America. North of the U.S.–Mexico border are 28 species, a few of which are treelike. They occur from sea-level to moderate elevations, mostly in arid situations.
Yuccas (a.k.a. Spanish bayonets, palmillas) are evergreen plants of arid lands, easily recognized by their usually branched habit, the commonly stiff, pointed leaves in tight spirals, forming rosettes, and their large clusters of bell-shaped creamy-white flowers. Unlike the similar, but never treelike, century plants (Agave), yuccas bloom year after year.
For a number of years after leaves die, they will clothe the trunk; eventually, they drop, exposing a thin, rind-like grayish bark. leaf Simple, long, slender, ending in a sharp spine, hairless, more or less concave on the upper surface, margins sometimes with minute teeth, often shredding into coarse fibers. flower Inflorescence a large ovoid panicle-like cluster of showy, bisexual, radially symmetric waxy flowers; 6 tepals, separate or joined at the base, 6 stamens, and a superior, 6-sided, 3-chambered ovary. fruit Stiffly woody-papery capsule, or fleshy squash-like berry that very slowly dries and is indehiscent. In each of the fruit’s 3 chambers are many flat black seeds, tightly stacked.
Typically about half, the seeds are consumed by moth larvae. Each yucca species relies on a single species of moth (genera Parategiticula and Tegiticula) for cross-pollination and seed production. The moth carries pollen from one plant to another, packing it into a receptacle on the stigma. It then lays eggs on the developing ovary, and the larvae feed upon some but not all of the seeds.
The emergence of adult moths from pupae in the soil must be timed to correspond to the flowering of the yuccas. Synchronization is frequently poor, and in some dry years, yuccas flower poorly. As “insurance” to perpetuate the symbiosis, not all pupae break dormancy in any one year, and yuccas flower to greater or lesser extent year after year.
Yucca flowers are an edible delicacy, and their consumption contributes to reduced seed production in some populations in rural Mexico. The leaves have been used to make sandals, coarse rope, and baskets. An extract from the subterranean stem of some species has detergent qualities and may be used as soap or shampoo.
