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Yucca Photos
| WAYNE'S WORD Volume 9 (Number 2) Summer 2000 |
More Yucca Photos
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Chaparral yucca (Yucca whipplei) on a remote ridge in the rugged San Gabriel Mountains of southern California. Several camouflaged big-horn sheep are standing on the rocky outcrop in the distance. Unfortunately, they are not clearly discernible at this resolution.
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Feathery stigma lobes and central stigmatic depression of the chaparral yucca (Yucca whipplei). The female yucca moth (Tegeticula maculata) presses a pollen mass into the central stigmatic orifice, thus pollinating the plant and insuring seed production and food for her larva.
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Mojave yucca (Yucca schidigera), a native species in coastal and desert areas of San Diego County. Unlike the chaparral yucca (Y. whipplei), it produces a compact flower cluster, a distinct basal trunk on old specimens, and leaves with conspicuous marginal fibers. Although its range overlaps that of Y. whipplei, it requires a different species of yucca moth (Tegeticula yuccasella)
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Stigma lobes and central stigmatic orifice of the Mojave yucca (Yucca schidigera). The female yucca moth (Tegeticula yuccasella) forces a little mass of pollen down into the orifice so that it makes contact with the recessed receptive area, thus pollinating the plant.
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