Hallelujah! Pointy plant lovers - we’ve found the showiest Yucca in the land! Need a plant that will fearlessly protect your property from invaders? Yucca whipplei’s your girl with thin, 3’ long, silvery blue-grey spearlike leaves with sawblade edges that form a stemless 6’ wide rosette of “DON’T TOUCH ME!” A native to southern California, Baja & Mexico where it likes to chill in chaparral, sandy coastal sage scrubs & inland valleys. Fantabulous flower spikes up to 15’ tall occur once maturity is hit, after at least five years. Thousands of fragrant, creamy bell-shaped flowers tinged with maroon tips erupt in late Spring, attracting the Yucca moth (Tegeticula maculata) who is the sole pollinator. They gather pollen, roll it in to balls that they stuff in the plant’s ovaries to ensure the plant develops seed, so the caterpillars who emerge from eggs laid in the ovary have a seedy snack. Coolness! Heat tolerant, loves rocky dry soils.

Megan
Plant Nerd