Soaptree Yucca
Author: Ray Bowers

Description:
The soaptree yucca is a 3 to 5m (10 to 17ft) tall palmlike shrub. Shrubs may have with a single or multiple clustered trunks. Thetrunks are usually unbranched or with a few upright branches. The leathery linear flat leaves that are 0.3 to 0.8m (1 to 2ft) long and end in a sharp spine. The light green leaves have long threads on the edges.

Geographic range:
Soaptree yuccas are found from southern Arizona east across southern New Mexico to southwestern Texas, and down into Mexico.

Habitat:
Soaptree yuccas are found in dry sandy plains, mesas, and arroyos. They are most abundant in desert grasslands.

Reproduction and Development:
Soaptree yuccas are dioecious with both female and male flower parts. It blooms from May to July. The flowers are found on a 0.9 to 3.0m (3 to 10ft) tall, branched stalk that is called a panicle. The bell shaped flowers are complete with three white sepals and three white petals. Fertilization occurs in a mutual relationship between a moth and the yucca, the moth fertilizes the yucca flowers and the yucca provides food for the yucca moth. The light brown fruit is a 4 to 7.5cm (1,5 to 3in) cylindrical capsule that has three cells that split open in the summer. The thin flat black seeds are round in shape. The moth larva feed on some of these seeds. For more information and pictures visit this web site: http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ww0902a.htm .

Asexual reproduction occurs as new plants bud off of the thick rootstock.

Conservation:
Tall yuccas are sometimes vandalized, but the yuccas can regrow from the roots. Even though the yuccas regrow, it takes many years for the tall yuccas to develop that many birds need as nest sites.

• Chopped pieces of the yucca roots and trunk can be used as soap or shampoo substitute.
  
• The native Americans used the leaf fibers to weave baskets, mats and sandals.
  
• The flowers can be eaten as a rich source of vitamin C. Grazing cattle also feed on the flowers, which often leads to the lower yuccas never producing seeds.

Taxonomy:

Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Asparagales
Family: Agavaceae
Genus: Yucca
Species: Yucca elata

References:
Allred, Kelly W. 2000. A Field Guide to the Flora of the Jornada Plain. Las Cruces: NMSU Department of Animal and Range Science.

Bowers, Janice E. 1993. Shrubs and Trees of the Southwest Desert. Tucson, AZ : Southwest Parks and Monuments Association.

Carter, Jack L. 1997. Trees and Shrubs of New Mexico. Silver City, NM: Mimbres Publishing.

Ivey, Robert D. 1995. Flowering Plants of New Mexico. Albuquerque, NM: by author.

Moore, Michael. 1989. Medicinal Plants of the Desert and Canyon West. Santa Fe, New Mexico: Museum of New Mexico Press.

MacMahon, James A. 1987. Deserts. New York: Alfred A. Knoph, Inc.

Wooton, E.O. and Paul C. Standley. 1915. Flora of New Mexico. Contributions from the United States National Herbarium, Vol 19. Washington:Government Printing Office.

Related Terms: Magnoliophyta, Liliopsida