Yucca a very versatile plant

[Guest guest]

There are several varieties of the Yucca Plant. I take Yucca when I need an anti-inflammatory, to halt allergy

symptoms, and even when I have a sinus infection. It's natural cortisone properties actually helps our bodies

without the side effects of the pharmaceutical cortisone, which comes from animals.

The plant makes an excellent house plant, I have had one for 15 years. There are many varieties that a wide

range of climates. Easy to grow in most yards, and they do like to spread.

Blessings, Joy

http://eduscapes.com/nature/notcacti/index1.htm

Yucca. Yucca (pronounced YUHK uh) is the name of another plant group within the agave family that has been described as a bush-like palm tree. Leaves of the yucca are usually pointed, stiff, and narrow, with sawlike or fibrous edges. The leaves grow along the stem or in clusters at the end of a stem. The yucca plant is an evergreen shrub that does not shed its leaves each year. Some have short stems and others have tall woody and scaly trunks.

Yucca plants have bell-shaped flowers. Flower color varies from white, cream-color, or whitish-green for different species. These flowers grow in a cluster on a stem which springs up from the center of a leaf-cluster. Some yucca flowers give off a strong fragrance when they open at night. Pollination is completed by the female yucca moth which moves from one plant to another carrying along pollen. Yuccas also bear large fruits that can either be fleshy or dry and contain many flat, black seeds.

Yuccas were the most important plant for Native Americans in the Southwest. They provided food, fiber, and soap plus served roles in ceremonial functions. Soap and shampoo qualities come from the root ingredient, saponin. Its detergent qualities were gained by pounding yucca roots in water to produce copious suds. Indians also used the fiber-producing qualities of yucca. Whole leaves were used for construction bindings. Individual fibers were produced by soaking leaves in water, then pounding them with wooden clubs on flat rocks. Rinsing away the softened pulp left tough fiber filaments that were twisted together into threads. Yucca fiber and threads were used to construct sandals, ropes, mats, clothing, nets, hairbrushes, mattresses, and baskets. Parts of the yucca plant, the flower stalks, blossoms, and seeds, were a food source. Fruits of the banana yucca were eaten raw, baked, boiled, dried, or ground into meal. Sun-dried pulp from the fruits was kneaded into cakes and stored for winter use.

Yuccas grow abundantly in the southern and southwestern areas of the United States and also in the desert highlands and plateaus of Mexico. At least fifteen species of yucca can be found within the deserts of the United States. Most are low plants or shrubs, but there are several species that become large, like picturesque trees. Included is the largest variety, the tree (Yucca brevifolia).

Early Mormon settlers gave the Tree its name because the plants seemed to lift up their arms like the Biblical . trees reach thirty to forty feet high and may spread to twenty feet. As they age, they branch abundantly and the oldest of these plants may be two hundred years or older. It is difficult to estimate their age because the fibrous trunks do not form annual growth rings.

trees are home to many different species of birds including 's orioles that hang their nests from the short, stiff leaves. Northern flickers excavate their nest holes into the fibrous trunks and after they leave, other birds take up residence. Fallen branches and trunks are consumed by termites as they decay. And the termites are eaten by the night lizard, a reptile that lives underneath the cover of the tree bark.

trees are found on the desert plains and gentle slopes of southern California, western Arizona, and southern Nevada.

Sotol. Sotol is an agave species that is frequently mistaken for its close relative, yucca. Sotol is sometimes called 'desert spoon' because of the shape of its enlarged bases of the long serrated leaves. Those sawtoothed, ribbon-like leaves and tiny flowers clustered on its tall spike stalks distinguish it form the yucca's smooth-edged leaves and bell-like blossoms. The tall, thick flowering stalks elongate in late spring and bloom from May to August. Male and female flowers are borne on separate plants. They wind pollinate and papery-shelled, winged seeds ripen and are dispersed by the wind. Species of sotol are found in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas in the United States and also in Mexico.

Indians ate the immature flower stalk after first roasting it in stone-line pits. The leaves were stripped of thorns and woven into baskets, mats, and thatch. Leaf fibers were used for sandals, coarse ropes, and other items.