The Mojave yucca seems to be the kind that grows near me. This one complements the West Temple and Mount Kinesava nicely.

The Zion nature centers tend to focus on how the indians used the yucca. They ate the fruits green, dried and stored over winter. They ate them baked, mixed with berries, and made into little cakes that could be dried for winter use. Young flower stalks were dished up like asparagus.

And then they were just getting started …

They also processed yucca leaves to get the fibers in them and made ropes out of them for belts, rope ladders, sandal toe straps, cradle board ties, fishnets and sandals, mats, and baskets.

Poor plant! This makes it sound like the yucca supported the whole indian population.

I think the more amazing thing about the yucca is how little yuccas are made.

It seems that they have a unique way of being pollinated. Each type of yucca has to be pollinated by a specific type of moth. For example, the Mojave yucca needs a specific white moth named T. yuccasella to do the job. When they grow yuccas in other parts of the world where this moth doesn’t exist, they don’t get little yuccas. (Well … unless some gardener with a little paintbrush does the deed by hand.)

It gets better.

The reason a specific moth needs to do it is that the moth knows how to roll the yucca pollen into a little ball and stuff it into the cup-shaped stigma of the yucca flower. It’s not something that your average bee can handle. The moth even has mouth parts shaped just right to do it. (The moth gets something out of the deal too. After playing yucca cupid, the moth then lays eggs in the flowers which hatch out into little moths … well, actually, larvae … and eat some of the yucca seeds.)

This doesn’t answer the burning question, why would God make the poor yucca go through such a process? Why can’t yucca pistils pick up yucca stamens in bars, the way people reproduce.