Soaptree Yucca

July 19, 2016

Yuca en flor 2 PI Noise copy 1200x800 EPOD (6)

Photographer
: Cesar Cantu
Summary Author: Cesar Cantu

The photo above shows a soaptree yucca (Yucca elata) captured at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. This desert plant employs stem elongation to stand above advancing dunes. The soaptree yucca produces large cream-colored blooms on thin stalks in late spring that can extend its height up to about 18 ft (5.5 m). 
 
The yucca is one of the most useful plants found in the deserts of Mexico and the southwestern U.S. Native Americans boiled or roasted its flower pods and stalks to make a nutritious food, fibers from its leafs were used for the fabrication of rope, matting, sandals and baskets, and its roots were chopped and boiled to produce soap to wash hair and blankets. Photo taken on May 24, 2014. [Revised November 2017]
 
Photo Details: Canon 6D camera; zoom 24-70 mm lens; 1/100 sec. exposure; f/2.8; ISO 100.