Yucca

“ Yucca, yuk′a, n. a genus of plants of natural order Liliaceæ, natives of Mexico, &c., some cultivated in gardens on account of the singularity and splendour of their appearance.—Yucca gloriosa, a native of Virginia, but quite hardy in England, the stem two or three feet high, its upper part producing a great tuft or crown of large sword-shaped evergreen leaves, each terminating in a sharp black spine. From the centre of this crown of leaves rises the flower-stalk, three feet high, branching out into a large panicle, the flowers white with a purple stripe. ”

“ The yuccas deserve a story by themselves. One small, unimpressive species greets you on the meadows at the foot of Raton Pass; others have to be searched out along high limestone ridges where the foothills are deciding to become mountains. The one chosen for our state flower is the tall yucca (Yucca elata) , a superb species best seen along the Continental Divide near Silver City. The genus reaches its greatest size in the grotesque Joshua tree, which never fails to attract the eye on the Mohave desert in California.
The century plant has a name that always gets attention. ”

“ Yucca is to be found in one species or another throughout the one-time land of the Pueblos. Such intensive use was made of it by the early people that it is almost surprising that it could have survived. As mentioned previously, yucca was the favorite fiber for cordage, and essentially it was cordage which made up the best types of sandals. ”

“ Tormented, thin forests of it stalk drearily in the high mesas, particularly in that triangular slip that fans out eastward from the meeting of the Sierras and coastwise hills where the first swings across the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley. The yucca bristles with bayonet-pointed leaves, dull green, growing shaggy with age, tipped with panicles of fetid, greenish bloom. After death, which is slow, the ghostly hollow network of its woody skeleton, with hardly power to rot, makes the moonlight fearful. ”

“ This species prefers barren slopes supporting yucca plants. These plants produce large seeds which are staple food items for P. f. pallidus and other rodents during the lean part of the year, that is to say, late summer and autumn. Many of the dry capsules of the yucca plants were examined in October, 1951, and these generally still contained a few seeds. Pocket mice taken in October usually carried in their cheek pouches seeds of yucca together with some other material, and often they carried only the seeds of yucca. ”

“ Some of the Yuccas will bloom before the end of the month. I have them in bold patches the whole fifteen-feet depth of the border at the extreme ends, and on each side of the pathway, where, passing from the lawn to the Pæony ground, it cuts across the border to go through the arched gateway. The kinds of Yucca are gloriosa, recurva, flaccida, and filamentosa. They are good to look at at all times of the year because of their grand strong foliage, and are the glory of the garden when in flower. One of the gloriosa threw up a stout flower-spike in January. ”

“ On the summits of some of the dry sandy ridges, we saw a few of the plants called Adam's needles, (yucca angustifolia) thriving with an appearance of luxuriance and verdure, in a soil which bids defiance to almost every other species of vegetation. Nature has, however, fitted the yucca for the ungenial soil it is destined to occupy. The plant consists of a large tuft of rigid spear-pointed leaves, placed immediately upon the root, and sending up in the flowering season, a stalk bearing a cluster of lilliaceous flowers as large as those of the common tulip of the gardens. ”

“ Crossing the barrier of the San Fernando Mountains on the north, through a mile-and-a-half-long tunnel, we left the greenness of olive grove and orange orchard behind, and came out into a continually more and more arid country. Cactus and yucca began to appear and to multiply, the dwarf shrunken palmetto of the Mexican plains grew more and more plentiful, and then we came through dry, parched gulches and cañons, out onto a dead flat plain stretching away toward the eastern horizon as far as the eye could see—sand and sage brush and stunted cactus ”

“ This legend and nearly all the legends of the Navaho make frequent allusions to yucca. Four kinds are mentioned: 1st, tsási or haskán. Yucca baccata [229] (Torrey) ; 2d, tsasitsóz, or slender yucca, Yucca glauca (Nuttall) , Yucca angustifolia (Pursh) ; 3d, yĕbĭtsasi, or yucca of the gods, probably Yucca radiosa (Trelease) , Yucca elata (Engelmann) ; 4th, tsasibĭté or horned yucca, which seems to be but a stunted form or dwarf variety of Yucca baccata, never seen in bloom or in fruit by the author. Tsási is used as a generic name. All kinds are employed in the rites, sometimes indifferently ”

“ The leaves assume their richest hues and become thoroughly matured about the end of the year; and when the ground is covered with a thick coat of snow, their rigid forms are amongst the very few of any note that can be seen. In any garden, no matter how large or how small, a Yucca imparts a style or character to it which scarcely any other subject can give. ”

“ These are mainly plaques, but the yucca fibre weavers make a treasure or trinket basket, somewhat barrel-shaped, oftentimes with a lid, that is both pretty and useful. The name for all the yucca variety is pű-ű-ta. The Oraibi willow plaques are called yung-ya-pa, while a bowl-shaped basket is sa-kah-ta, and the bowls made of coiled willow splints bought from the Havasupai are sű-kű-wű-ta.
The Hopi weavers when at work invariably keep a blanket full of moist sand near them in which the splints are buried. This keeps them flexible, and the moist sand is better than water. ”

“ The women have small aprons of dangling yucca fiber strings while the men may wear loin-cloths of buckskin or cotton cloth. Children wear nothing at all. Yucca fiber sandals usually are worn by both men and women when they leave the cave but they are not essential about the city itself. The people of Cliff Palace are not clothes conscious and with their rich brown skins they need no protection from the sun. Even the men, who spend long hours in the sunny fields, need no covering.
The farmers are all smiles for their crops are growing prodigiously. Corn, beans and squash are growing well. ”

“ The Indians in the Montaña de Vitoc sent as a present to their officiating priest a yucca, which weighed thirty pounds, but yet was very tender. On the western declivity of the Cordillera, the boundary elevation for the growth of the yucca is about 3000 feet above the level of the sea.
Among the pulse there are different kinds of peas (garbanzos) on the coast; beans (frijoles) , on the contrary, occupy the hilly grounds. All vegetables of the cabbage and salad kinds cultivated in Europe will grow in Peru. The climate, both of the coast and the hills, suits them perfectly ”

“ They are held together by a narrow band of yucca. Found in Sprucetree House.
Plate XLIV: 2. Similar to the preceding basket, but smaller. Found in Sprucetree House....
[The “preceding basket” is thus described in explanation of the figure (Pl. XLIV: 1) :] Basket of woven yucca in two different colors, a neat pattern being thus attained. The strips of yucca running in a vertical direction are of the natural yellowish brown, the others (in horizontal direction) darker.... ”

“ In an interesting old picture, printed in Picart, the rite of the Earth Goddess is represented, much as described by Gómara and Benzoni. The goddess herself is shown with several heads, each that of a different animal, and near her are two lesser idols of grotesque form. It is possible that the Earth was conceived as the mother of all life, animal as well as vegetable, and that her two attendants represented yucca and maize, the two principal food plants of the Antilleans. Some authorities regard the chief of the Taïno gods, the son of the great First-in-Being, as a yucca spirit ”

“ Several species of tree yuccas in the same deserts, laden in early spring with superb while lilies, form forests hardly less wonderful, though here they grow singly or in small lonely groves. The low, almost stemless Yucca baccata, with beautiful lily-flowers and sweet banana-like fruit, prized by the Indians, is common along the cañon rim, growing on lean, rocky soil beneath mountain-mahogany, nut-pines, and junipers, beside dense flowery mats of Spiraea caespitosa and the beautiful pinnate-leaved Spiraea millefolium. ”

“ The plan shows the disposition of the plants, with grey-white edging of Cineraria maritima, Stachys and Santolina. There are groups of Lavender with large-flowered Clematises (C in the plan) placed so that they may be trained close to them and partly over them. There are the monumental forms of the taller Yuccas, Y. gloriosa and its variety recurva towards the far angles, and, nearer the front (marked Yucca in plan) , the free-blooming Yucca filamentosa of smaller size. ”

“ The yucca plant, which grows wild in the canyons and level places of the Mesa Verde, furnishes a tough fiber which the prehistoric people of Spruce-tree House used in the manufacture of various fabrics. ”

“ All have creamy or greenish-white bell-shaped drooping flowers borne in dense clusters on a long stalk growing out of a rosette of leaves. The fine-leaved tree-yucca sometimes grows 20 ft. high and is very abundant west of the Pecos River to Arizona. The budding flower stalk is quite tender and palatable and was often used as a food by early settlers. It is an excellent food for cattle, and they keep the stalks stripped of budding shoots, making the absence of seed pods quite conspicuous on the cattle ranges. ”

“ For all the species and varieties of Yucca the mode of culture is not only similar but simple. They have long roots of a wiry texture. These denote that they require deep soil, light, and rather dry. Sandy loam, light vegetable soil, or marl and peat grow them well. Raised beds or borders, the higher parts of rockwork, or any open position, thoroughly drained, will not only be conducive to their health, but also prove fitting points of vantage. ”

“ Some sandals with notched toes were woven of fine cord, but this art had degenerated and decoration was less elaborate, both as regards colored and raised patterns. Most sandals were of plaited yucca leaves, and many had square toes. Twined-weaving does not seem to have survived. Coiled baskets were still produced, but they were not plentiful. They were of a finer weave than those of the preceding periods but had fewer colored designs. Yucca ring baskets were extremely common. These were made by fastening the outer edges of a bowl-shaped mat, made of twilled yucca leaves, over a wooden ring. ”

“ Yucca is confined to the New World and is distributed from Bermuda and the eastern Antilles, through the south Atlantic and Gulf states to Oklahoma and Arkansas, and through New Mexico and northward along the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains to South Dakota, westward to middle California, and southward through Arizona, Mexico, and Lower California to Central America. About thirty species with many varieties and probable hybrids are recognized. Of the species which inhabit the territory of the United States nine assume the habit and attain the size of small trees. ”

“ Black, sticky mud from the bottom of the river is plastered thickly over the scalp and rubbed into the hair, where it is left for several hours. When it is washed away the hair is soft, and gleams like the sheeny wing of the blackbird. Root of the yucca plant is beaten into a pulp and used as a shampoo cream by other tribes. Cosmetics are not greatly in use among these women. They grow very brown and wrinkled at an early age, just when our sheltered women are looking their best. ”

“ Like its cousin, the sahuaro, the Mojave yucca is a friend to the Indians, who eat of the fruit when fresh, and dry it to be used when it is out of season. They also utilize the flower-buds and blossoms in preparing a stew, which, if not tempting to the appetite, is at least nourishing, and with them that is the main object of food. The seeds, when dried, are ground in rude mortars and used for mush and in making a sort of bread.
In the middle and northern desert, where the cacti are not so plentiful, there grows the Allenrolpea occidentalis, or greasewood. ”

“ The Yucca palm and fruit cactus grew off in a corner by themselves. Several small streams run through this plantation, spanned by lovely rustic bridges. In the deep ravines are found ferns of every variety known, and on the trees a collection of orchids which, I believe, has no equal in any country. The happy owner, who is a bachelor worth about $20,000,000, lives in a little house in the center of this town, which has never been furnished until last winter, but in the courtyard he has plants from every country in the world, for which the shipment alone cost $40,000. ”

“ Flowers of this Yucca develop as tight clusters of greenish-white buds at the ends of the branches, but do not open wide as do the flowers of other Yuccas. Joshua-trees do not bloom every year, the interval apparently being determined by rainfall and temperature. Birds, a small lizard, wood rats, and several species of insects are closely associated with the Joshua-tree, making use of it for food, shelter, or nest-building materials. Indians use the smallest roots, which are red, for patterns in their baskets. ”