Native Plant Database

Yucca schidigera Roezl ex Ortgies

Mojave yucca

Agavaceae (Century-Plant Family)

Evergreen shrub or small tree, usually with several clustered trunks, often with few upright branches, and with bayonetlike leaves.

Native Americans ate the fleshy fruit, either fresh or roasted, and used the fibrous leaves for ropes and coarse blankets. A soap substitute can be obtained from the roots and trunks of this and other yuccas. Flowers in the Yucca genus depend upon the small, white pronuba moth (Tegeticula) for pollination. The female moth gathers pollen and works it into a tiny ball before pushing it against the stigma of another flower, where she deposits her eggs in the ovary. The larvae feed on the developing fruit capsule but leave some seeds to mature. This is a common yucca in the Mojave Desert, often growing with Joshua Tree (Y. brevifolia), a tree-like species that often forms forests.

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Last Update: 2010-07-19