Yucca Flowers

Published January 25, 2009

This is a section of the flowers that were blooming on that yucca plant I showed you in yesterday’s post.  It only blooms in the late spring/early summer for a short time, and the flowers are actually tiny.  They are part of a huge cluster that explodes atop one huge stalk that grows to be 5-12 feet tall and protrudes from a base which is the foliage of this plant, consisting of needle-sharp spears up to three feet long. The life of this type of yucca plant is dependent on the yucca moth.  They need each other to survive.  This subspecies of the yucca plant has a life cycle of 4-7 years.  It only blooms once.  It will turn brown and die by late summer or fall in the year of flowering.  So the plant that made this bloom is now gone.

This song doesn’t necessarily go with this image, but I’ve been listening to Michelle Shocked this morning and decided to share this song with you.  It’s called Moanin’ Dove from her “Deep Natural” album.  I believe she’s referring to a mourning dove (it’s sometimes called moanin’ because of the sound it makes).   I have a couple that hang out around my house; I often hear them in them morning, and they remind me of other times.

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Here’s a snapshot of the whole plant: