South American Plants – Yucca

Name – The botanical name is Agave, which is the name of a the daughter of Cadmus, the king and founder of the city of Thebes, Greece, and of the goddess Harmonia – like many daughters of Gods, poor Agave came to a sticky end!

Description – From Mexico, Central and North America, this plant is actually a member of the lily family.

Origin – Yuccas are distributed over a wide area from Canada into Central America and the Caribbean with species being adapted to three kinds of terrain - dry deserts, grasslands and tropical rainforests. It is worth noting that you will not get fertile seed from your Yucca, because self pollination is impossible, although a few are self-fertile. Most Yuccas are pollinated exclusively by small Yucca moths with the plant and moth totally dependent on each other. The female moth visits flowers collecting pollen into a ball which is deposited on the surface of the stigma after she has laid eggs deep in the flower ovary, not something we can replicate! This plant is not hardy outside in the UK and needs to be brought indoors in winter if you give it some summer outdoor exposure. However, it’s normally grown as a houseplant

For Decoration - The yucca is dramatic and impressive – it has clusters of sharp looking (and truly sharp, not a good plant if you have small children!) leaves and thick stems which give it a strong structural appeal that harmonises with a minimal interior and against plain backgrounds. The best known as house plants are Yucca aloifolia which has a dense head of sharp leaves and yucca elephantipes which holds its loose head of leaves over a swollen base, like an elephant's foot. On any yucca, large white bell-shaped flowers may appear after a number of years but will not set seed (see above). This is a tough plant that does best in a light spot, but not in full sunlight, it needs to be watered regularly but let the compost dry out between waterings from spring to autumn and water sparingly in winter. Yucca often benefits from a spell outdoors in summer.

South American yucca photograph by Perrotetina, used under a creative commons attribution licence

 

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