Monday, August 31, 2009

Yucca

While the name may sound... offputting. Apparently many varieties of Yucca have edible parts to them that are beneficial to the body.
This particular kind (99.998% positive) is a Pallida Yucca, or Pale Yucca.
To put things oversimply Pale Yucca looks like an overgrown clump of stiff grass. To go into more detail it's a cluster of evergreen leaves that are between 5-20 inches each that radiate like a rosette not like a bloomin' onion shape. The leaves start small and end in a sharpSHARP* point, but can be up to 1.5 inches wide in the middle; they're flat but can curl slightly inward from the yellow/brown spine (it's not called a midvein on a Yucca plant). They have green leaves with yellow edges but they're coated in a light minty-green film that can be easily rubbed off. Unlike many other Yucca this kind does not have little fibers coming from the edge of the leaves.
The bell shaped flowers grow on a stalk, much like a skinny tree trunk, and are about 2-3 inches ranging in color from light green to offwhite. Each Pale Yucca can have up to 100 (sometimes more) flowers on it's stalk. The stalks themselves can reach 6 feet.
The important part is that it's a Yucca plant, and even if you don't know exactly which kind as long as you have the general idea you'll be able to identify a Yucca plant. Joshua trees are Yuccas also, but they look like feathered tree trunks with Yucca plants growing on them so I guess they're not too hard if you know what you're looking for.


*Word to the wise, I've heard of people's skin being easily punctured by the point of the Yucca leaf; and, actually, I've heard the edges aren't very pleasant either.

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