Saturday, June 5, 2010

Flowering Time for the Harriman's Yucca

Harriman's Yucca is commonly found throughout the Colorado Plateau Desert which covers the states of Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. The specimen growing in my backyard is now putting up a great big stock of flowers.

This thing has grown far beyond what I thought it would. In the wild I don't remember the species getting this big. But alas it has.

Yucca Harrimanae has several subspecies as well located in different areas of the growing range. There is the Salt Lake Desert Yucca, Uinta Basin Sterile Yucca, New Mexican Yucca, in addition to the traditional Harriman's Yucca.

I think this beast got so big due to the favorable micro climate in my yard. I have had to trim some of the fibrous leaves back, not an easy job.

Given the time I have cared for the large beast I am glad to see it putting out some flowers. Now what happens when this stalk dies? Hopefully it will continue to live, but being of the Agave family once something puts up a big stalk, nothing is certain. Yucca unlike true agave plants typically don't die after flowering.

So there is my take on Harriman's big ass yucca.

2 comments:

Cactus Ring

Powered by WebRing.