Last summer I uncovered two sick looking yuccas. Vines and brush were choking them out. Hooray, they are blooming. I wonder if they are native to the area, or would they have to have been planted there?
You can also see a five-leafed jack-in-the- pulpit (I think--the flower part is not showing yet -- may take yet another year?
I don't think I new yuccas bloomed. They are very pretty.
There are a handful of yucca species native to the southeast. Here's a page with the yuccas native to AL.
http://plants.usda.gov/java/stateSearch?searchTxt=yucca&searchType=Sciname&stateSelect=US01&searchOrder=1&imageField.x=84&imageField.y=17
Incidentally, I've got five or six different species of yucca blooming in my desert bed. The blooms open wider at night. I think they are pollinated usually by moths, but mine have been covered in dozens of strange-looking assassin bug things.
I always thought of them as a desert plant. That's why I was so surprised to find these in my woods. There are other smaller ones in the area as well. Mine look like the yucca flaccida on that website.... There is also another species in my yard that I always assumed was introduced here -- it is HUGE and laying down from the size. I think it is Spanish Bayonet. Extremely sharp! I will try to get a picture tomorrow.
Your area is very pretty.
When I moved to Florida I was surprised to find Prickly Pear as a native>
Here is my other specie of yucca. It looks really old. I think it is the Spanish Bayonet. In researching it, it seems to be a common thing for them to "fall over". I think this one is interesting because it seems to have a twin head this year....two blooms on one stalk? Last year it had only one. Anyway, I will have to look up this one for native status.
It is quite amazing, here we call them Australian Cabbage palms, but they are Yucc's too, they are often multi headed especially if the main stem gets damaged or starts to die off, they also often send out new stems from the roots like a sucker, but the flowers are lovely, I dont let mine set seed as this definitely weakens the plants, good luck to all you Yucca growers. WeeNel.
