Sonoran Desert
- The most interesting region in the world -
Adaptations
Like so many other Sonoran desert plants, one of the Yuccas biggest adaptation is its waxy coating that traps in water to significantly drop the percentage of water that is lost to heat. Other adaptations of the Yucca include fleshy leaves to store resources, roots that store resources, and during times of serious drought the Yucca can drop its leaves and even stop growing.
Uses
Most uses of the Yucca originated with Native Americans and early settlers. The Yucca was made into fiber for rope, sandals, cloth, and even made its roots into soap. The Yucca’s green pods were used for food, its fruits were boiled and baked, the blossoms were eaten, the leaves were chewed on, and its fruits were fermented to produce a beverage for rituals. Supposedly, the Yucca can be used to help and or treat colitis, hypertension, arthritis, and migraine headaches. When tested on people it was found in some patients there was significant reductions in blood pressure and serum cholesterol levels. Although the evidence is limited for these cures there was proof. Today, the Yucca is more commonly used in soaps, shampoos, foaming agents in carbonated beverages, flavorings, use in drug synthesis research, and food supplements.
Yucca
Description
There are about 49 Yuccas that exist yet all are characterized by stiff, evergreen, sword shaped leaves crowded on a stout trunk. One of the Yuccas well known features is its compacted terminal flowerhead that faintly resembles a candle bearing white or greenish flowers.
Life Cycle
The life cycle of the Yucca revolves around a Yucca moth. The moth is specifically adapted to pollination Yuccas. Without the Yucca moth the Yucca cannot produce seeds unless hand pollinated. At maturity, yucca pollen grains adhere into sticky masses called pollinia and unlike most other flowering plants, the pollen is not dispersed as individual grains. The pregnant female yucca moth collects pollinia within the yucca flower and forms them into a solid mass. The moth then uses a pair of long, curved, appendages in the mouth region to collect, form and carry the pollen ball. Then the pregnant female moth visits another plane where it inserts its egg into the flower ovary and presses the pollen into the central stigmatic depression later resulting in the fertilization of hundreds of immature seeds inside. By late fall, dark brown yucca seed capsules split open between the seams of the carpels, releasing hundreds of black seeds.
Region
They are native to the arid parts of North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. Specifically within the Sonoran Desert, Yuccas can be located everywhere. Including Baja California and up into southern Arizona.
