Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Big Bend Revisited :: Torrey Yucca

Thursday, February 28th - - As I was driving from one place to another, I kept seeing this strange looking plant. It stood anywhere from four to six feet in height. Usually the bottom half was still brown and dry looking, but on the upper portion were long green spikes and a huge flowering head. There are quite a few pull-outs along the park roads but it seemed there weren't any of these plants in those areas. I finally found a pull-out with several of them somewhat near the road, while on my way to Boquillas Canyon.




This is the Torrey Yucca... The University of Texas at Austin website has some information about the plant as well as some pretty neat photos.







Many of the specimens I saw had only one flowering clump adorning the top, but this one, as well as others, are sporting two.







What appears at first glance to be one
huge flower turns out to be a clump of many small flowers, in varying
stages of development.


















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