By ROBERT DRYJA
Los Alamos

Certain kinds of plants may dominate an area. Trees and bushes typically have trunks with bark and leaves at the ends of small stems. A leaf spreads out from each stem. A leaf is flat with while out its outer edge may have a complicated design.

These plants are categorized as being deciduous if they shed their leaves in the autumn and grow a new generation in the spring. Pine trees in contrast grow needle-like leaves on branches that extend from the trunk. The needles may live for several years.

However, a completely different kind of plant may be spread out among dominating deciduous plants and pine trees. Yucca does not have a trunk or branches. Instead, its leaves grow in a star-like cluster immediately out of the ground. The leaves are one to two feet long, are up to two inches wide, and fibrous. A leaf ends in a point. Leaves are relatively flat but with some curl from side to side. String-like fiber may grow in curls from the outside edges. 

The thin sides of a yucca leaf have string-like threads that curl as the leaf grows. Photo by Robert Dryja

Yucca has a specialized way of having their flowers pollinated. The yucca moth is specialized for carrying out pollination. It carries pollen from the flower stamen of one yucca to the stigma of another. Further, it flies among the same species of yucca, not randomly among different species. There are forty species of yucca and moths.

A yucca moth lays an egg in a flower. The resulting moth larva then feeds on some of the developing seeds. Yucca therefore depends on the moth to fertilize its seeds while the moth larva depends on the plant as a source of food. The lives of the yucca plant and the yucca moth are so interdependent that one cannot live without the other.

Ancestral Pueblo people used yucca in a variety of ways. The roots were ground to make a sudsy pulp. This pulp then was used as a form of soap or shampoo. Legend has it that hair could be stronger and it could prevent baldness. The fibers in the leaves were woven into sandals, baskets or rope. A leaf also could be made into a paint brush for decorating pottery. The flowers and fruit were eaten. There is so much more to know about a yucca plant in addition to how it looks.

A Yucca Moth gathers pollen from a flower cluster rather than sip nectar. Photo by Ann Cooper

A cluster of yucca flowers. Photo by Patrick Alexander